Maryland dropped the ball - and dropped the call - on one of the biggest corporate headquarters relocation sweepstakes of 2026. South Korean technology giant Samsung is fleeing New Jersey after locating its U.S. headquarters there nearly 40 years ago. Up for grabs were not only the prestige of having the HQ of a conglomerate with fifth-highest brand value of any company in the world, but also 1000 high-wage jobs. You would expect Maryland, which hasn't attracted a single new major corporate headquarters in over a quarter century, to pull out all the stops to lure Samsung to the state. But you would be wrong: Samsung is instead moving its HQ to Plano, Texas.
How hard did Montgomery County and Maryland try to win the game? We don't know, because neither discussed their desire or strategy to win over Samsung publicly. We know Maryland Governor Wes Moore was in touch with executives of a Samsung biotech division when he traveled to South Korea on a trade mission in 2025. Those conversations played a role in Samsung Biologics agreeing to take over a Montgomery County manufacturing facility that was likely to close otherwise. Was Moore able to tap into those contacts during this year's HQ competition? We don't know.
What we do know, is that Montgomery County and Maryland again reaped the whirlwind of failing to get themselves into fighting shape for economic development. While the Maryland tax burden is less than New Jersey's, it cannot remotely compete with Samsung's choice of Texas. The Lone Star State has no individual or corporate income tax. Maryland, whose leaders chose to close 8 power plants and implement "clean" power mandates and a Communist EmPOWER surcharge on electric bills, can no longer generate enough power and is forced to import electricity at higher "boardwalk prices." As a result, energy costs in Texas are literally half of those in Maryland.
Those two factors alone were likely enough to convince any intelligent executive to choose Texas over Maryland. But wait - there's more.
Texas has superior highway and air travel infrastructure. Dallas Fort Worth International Airport is closer by car to Plano than Montgomery County is to Dulles International Airport, thanks to Montgomery County and Maryland officials actively blocking construction of a long-planned Potomac River crossing to the Dulles area.
There's also no contest when it comes to private jet travel. Business executives can travel to international destinations like London and Mexico City from Addison Airport, located only 12-17 minutes from Plano. Such jaunts are not possible from the Montgomery County Airpark, which cannot accommodate larger business jets. Addison has customs facilities; Montgomery County Airpark does not. Addison boasts 3 Fixed-Base Operators providing fueling, minor maintenance, deicing, and baggage handling; flight crew resources and facilities such as flight plan and weather rooms and crew lounges; and luxury VIP passenger lounges, secure parking, and corporate sedan/limousine ground transportation coordination. MCA has one FBO, which is limited to fueling and hangar storage, and does not offer luxury facilities or amenities.
Finally, Texas is a Right to Work state and has a far-cheaper cost of living than Maryland. This means lower overall labor costs, and the lower cost of housing and everything else helps to attract the best and brightest to Texas.
Texas has a whopping 57 Fortune 500 corporate headquarters. Maryland has...3. Womp womp.
"Texas is the undisputed headquarters of headquarters," Texas Governor Greg Abbott said in a (under)statement earlier this week.
18 comments:
Maryland politicians have spent more time working for the illegal wife beating trafficker then trying to get companies to locate here.
'Maryland politicians' They are definitely contradictory terms.
Miserable in MoCo/Maryland but doing nothing to change your situation.
Are we going to be treated to one of these diatribes every single time a major company in another state moves its headquarters to a state other than Maryland?
At least this time you noted that it's unclear whether, and how hard, Maryland tried to get this headquarters relocated here.
5:19 - The Maryland Man. How true. Beretta left MD after years of making pistols for the military and politicians actually cheered. Rick Perry in Texas literally called MD companies on the phone urging them to come to TX when he was governor. Has Wes Moore ever made a single call like that? I'll wait.
I believe it was the Economist recently that showed Texas was doing very well, nationally, not just compared to Maryland.
@7:27 Take a Tylenol, you voted for this.
Alternate Headline: Samsung chooses Texas over 49 States and the District of Columbia. FIFY.
9:03, good point, Moore can feel better now getting in line with the other loser states. We're not only not gaining, we are actively losing companies already here, that's a whole 'nother level of Loser.
The point the left misses is the cost of doing business in MD. Democrats think their economic policy operates in a vacuum so raising the corporate tax rate generates X amount of revenue. They put it it in their budget and spend all of it. When companies move out, the projected revenue has already been spent causing a budget deficit. Econ 101 never learned by these people who get elected because of the D next to their name.
Not to beat a dead horse...but folks like JAC seemingly are in favor of restricting the development at the GEICO HQ because of the trees, yet of course the reason Texas is attractive is because they have essentially zero zoning and would never allow a project to be held up one bit because of "heritage" trees or other nonsense.
I don't get you folks. If you want MD to compete for things like this HQ, then you will need to live with the lack of much regulation for large company development. It's the same people who claim they are leaving Arlington because of the new "missing middle" zoning, and in the same breadth they say they are moving to FL or TX where someone can literally put up an industrial company, or a 5 story high rise, right across the street from your single family home.
6:04 - Not anti-development at all and not against tree removal. But I was merely commenting on how cavalier people are about removing all mature trees from a site nothing more.
Since you require people that can see the big picture to beat that horse over and over again. MD politicians always want to have it both ways offering initial publicity funded incentives, especially to those who contribute to their campaigns, yet can't get around the fact that we have one of the worst business climates in the country. You seem to believe that it's an all or nothing environment which is why MD and other blue states are losing actual taxpayers.
"Texas is the undisputed headquarters of headquarters," Texas Governor Greg Abbott said in a (under)statement earlier this week. With that in mind, why would you think any headquarters would move/stay in MD? Duh!
FACTS: Texas is home to more than 17,600 technology firms, with thousands more scaling startups and regional hubs located across the state.
Locally, the tech ecosystem is heavily concentrated in major metropolitan areas:Austin ("Silicon Hills"): Hosts over 5,775 tech companies. Dallas/Fort Worth & Houston: Also host a large number of the state's technology firms.
Top native tech giants headquartered in the state include:Dell Technologies (Round Rock)
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (Spring)
AT&T (Dallas), and Tesla (Austin)
Nothing to compete with here.
@1:47 but the brilliant minds over in maga land told us that Tylenol causes autism.
Wasn't there some big company that left California for Texas recently because of the toxic business climate? it made headlines.
Wonder why that is...
Post a Comment