The wild west of investing

The Lone Star State is about to get an influx of finance bros.

The New York Stock Exchange announced today that one of its fully electronic outposts, NYSE Chicago, is reincorporating in Texas, and will now go by—you guessed it—NYSE Texas.

Texas has the largest number of NYSE listings, and represents over “$3.7 trillion in market value for our community,” wrote Lynn Martin, president of the NYSE Group.

But it’s not just opportunities that are bringing the NYSE to Texas—it’s competition.

An exchange standoff

A group of financiers from BlackRock and Citadel have been attempting to start their own exchange based in Dallas, dubbed the Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE), founded on anti-“woke” principles. The group has raised $161 million from its backers, and just last month announced it filed with the SEC to launch sometime in early 2026.

For the great state of Texas, the economic opportunities extend beyond ticker symbols. Gov. Greg Abbott is marketing Texas as an alternative to Delaware as the top legal home base for corporations. So far, the strategy seems to be working: Elon Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX reincorporated in Texas last year, and Meta is reportedly considering moving to Texas.

Over 60% of S&P 500 companies are incorporated in Delaware for a reason: The state has a reputation of being business-friendly, both in its courts and tax structure. But tech behemoths wager that Texas may embrace their businesses even more warmly. Musk made the decision to move SpaceX to Texas after a Delaware judge rejected his monster pay package at Tesla.

That’s partly why Texas is starting its own court to try corporate cases, rivaling Delaware’s Court of Chancery. Meta is reportedly facing a slew of litigation in Delaware, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg may believe that Texas courts would be more likely to rule in his favor.

Only time will tell how a cowboy hat fits into Zuck’s new look.—LB