Texas is quickly becoming one of the main technological hubs in the country, with Austin leading the way. In recent times, we have seen major companies such as Apple, Tesla, Oracle and Amazon, shift a significant portion of their operations towards Texas and away from other states, like California. This is due to a multitude of reasons, but cost is the primary motivator.

To begin with, Texas has no corporate income tax and no personal state income, helping cut both employee and company costs. On top of this, Texas has lower operating costs in general. This includes lower costs on land, utilities, energy and real estate. Texas also has many prestigious universities, creating a growing talent pool with lower labor costs. According to Forbes, Texas is now the second best state in the country for businesses. On top of this, Texas also offers companies corporate incentives to relocate. 

While New York and California are still enormous tech hubs, the high taxes, regulatory hurdles, and the extremely high cost of living for employees have further incentivized these shifts. Due to the rise of remote work, employees and companies now find themselves with the flexibility to relocate to more business friendly states. 

What does this mean for the future of Texas? As huge corporations like OpenAI and Nvidia invest hundreds of billions of dollars into projects in Texas, like the “Stargate” project,  it is becoming one of the main tech hubs in the country. Austin, now nicknamed ‘Silicon Hills’, has led the way with a very high concentration of tech companies focused on emergent technologies like cybersecurity, AI and quantum computing. This is great for Texas residents as the added investment will provide more job opportunities and better infrastructure. Although Texas is already an economic powerhouse, with the second largest state GDP in the nation,  these investments may eventually put it on the path to become number one.