Texas has long been a popular destination for newcomers, thanks to cheaper land and housing, more job opportunities, lower taxes, and fewer regulations. There’s also the great weather, food, schools, and medical facilities, the abundant resources and year-round recreation and outdoor activities, artistic and cultural events, fairs, festivals, music venues, and the diverse and friendly people — you know, just to name a few.

Texas has always been a business-friendly environment, which has certainly not been lost on tech and financial companies headquartered in strictly-regulated and high-priced states like California and New York. There are 237 corporate relocation and expansion projects in the works in Texas just since the pandemic hit.

Tech giant Oracle moved its headquarters to Austin in late 2020; Tesla is building its new Gigafactory there, and Apple will have its second-largest campus there as well. Both Google and Facebook have satellite offices in Austin, and the file hosting services company Dropbox will be leaving San Francisco for Austin. Recently, the global real estate services firm CBRE and multinational financial services behemoth Charles Schwab moved their headquarters from California to the Dallas area. Hewlett Packard’s cofounders were two of the original grandfathers of Silicon Valley, who started their company in a Palo Alto garage in 1939. Now, the corporation is moving its headquarters from San Jose to Houston.

And the number of mega-wealthy individuals who’ve moved to Texas are too numerous to mention. It’s not just big cities like Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio that are seeing an influx of people — bedroom communities are growing by leaps and bounds as well.

There’s one important caveat to the news of how well business is doing in the Lone Star State — it’s the coming brawl over political representation. According to the 2020 census, while Texas has gained more residents than any other state since 2010, 95% of its explosive growth has been driven by people of color. The state’s Hispanic population is now almost as large as its non-Hispanic white population. Since 2010, for every white resident gained, Texas gained nearly 11 Hispanics. That collective growth has earned Texas two additional congressional seats, which is ratcheting up efforts by Republicans — who have long controlled every level of power in the state.

(AP News, CNBC, Forbes, NYT, Texas Tribune)