(The Center Square) – Gov. Greg Abbott’s goal for Texas to dominate the domestic semiconductor and chip manufacturing industry continues to be realized as more companies are expanding operations in Texas. Texas is also beating out other states with the most Fortune 500 companies’ headquarters located there and it also keeps raking in top business ranking every year.
In 2023, as the supply chain crisis worsened and a chip shortage was feared during the Biden administration, Abbott and the Texas legislature advanced the Texas’ CHIPS Act. The new law established a new Texas CHIPS Office, allocated $700 million for a TISF fund and established grants and the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Consortium. Nearly every month, new TISF awards are being announced, with the latest in Taylor, in central Texas, The Center Square reported.
But before that, Texas courted the South Korean tech giant Samsung, which in 2021 announced it was investing $17 billion in a new facility in Taylor. It was the largest foreign direct investment in Texas on record, bringing the company’s total Texas investment to more than $47 billion since it began operations in the U.S. in 1978, The Center Square reported.
By 2023, Samsung Austin Semiconductor, LLC, was awarded a $250 million TSIF grant for its semiconductor fabrication facility in Taylor. Samsung Electronics has three semiconductor fab facilities in Texas, with the first built in 1997. Two are in Austin; one is in Taylor. It’s also expanded operations in Plano over the last nearly 10 years.
In 2024, Abbott traveled to South Korea to secure investment in Texas manufacturing, including meeting with Samsung officials. He also met with South Korean SeAH Group executives who announced their plan to invest more than $110 million in a new steel manufacturing plant in Temple.
Meanwhile, Abbott and the legislature established a new business court and Texas’ first stock exchange was launched. Next came redomiciling announcements, all citing Texas’ new business court, stock exchange, fewer regulations and pro-business policies.
After Dell Technologies announced it was dedomiciling from Delaware to Texas and Exxon Mobile announced it was redomiciling in Texas, leaving New Jersey after more than 140 years, Samsung announced it was moving its headquarters to Texas.
“Samsung’s US headquarters have been based in the state of New Jersey for many years now, but that’s about to change,” the tech giant announced. Samsung Electronics America is relocating its headquarters from Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, to Plano, Texas, adding that Texas is “where Samsung has poured billions into setting up chipmaking plants. Samsung’s most advanced US chipmaking plants are based in Taylor, Texas, where the company will make 2nm chips.”
The full transition is expected by end of the year, “intended to strengthen alignment across teams and offices, and sharpen our focus on the areas that will drive the greatest impact for our customers, partners and business,” Samsung said in a statement. The move will impact roughly 1,000 New Jersey employees – one year after Samsung’s New Jersey headquarters opened.
That headquarters will be closing, a move that was “not surprising, but it is no less sad,” New Jersey Business & Industry Association president and CEO Michele Siekerka said. “These are the results of decades of anti-business policies in the state. With New Jersey maintaining the highest corporate tax rate in the nation, by far, and its national reputation for business unfriendliness through regulation and other costs and burdens, we have seen our Fortune 500 companies go from 22 in 2018 to 15 in 2025.”
Texans see the move as a reflection of successful pro-business policies.
“Last month, the Governor declared Texas the Financial Capital of America. That’s a clear sign that the Lone Star State is planting its flag as the new center of the American economy. This week, Texas regained its position as the top state for Fortune 500 companies, beating out California. From DEXIT to the HQ relocations, companies across the nation are recognizing that Texas means business,” Texans for Lawsuit Reform CEO Ryan Patrick told The Center Square. Boom Belt states like Texas are seeing new business due to tort reform championed by TLR.
Republican New Jersey Assemblyman John Azzariti agreed, saying Samsung’s move “is the latest warning sign that New Jersey’s business climate is becoming increasingly hostile to employers and investment.
“Texas didn’t win Samsung by accident,” he said. Texas won because its leaders “have spent years creating an environment where businesses want to invest, grow and create jobs. Meanwhile, New Jersey continues to raise costs, add regulations and send the message that employers are little more than a revenue source for government.”
New Jersey has a graduated corporate income tax with a top rate of 11.5%, “the highest in the nation,” the Tax Foundation notes. Overall, New Jersey’s combined tax rates are the fourth highest in the country, behind California, Hawaii and New York.
By contrast, Texas doesn’t have a traditional corporate income tax, instead imposing a franchise tax. When it comes to state tax competitiveness, Texas ranks 7th and New Jersey 49th, according to a Tax Foundation analysis.
