What happened: Apple is the latest technology giant to announce its move to the Lone Star State, where it will launch a new 250,000 square-foot factory in Houston to make servers for an artificial-intelligence system.

Remind me: Tech investments are transforming the Texas economy, often via companies from California in search of lower taxes and fewer regulations on land use and labor.

• Major corporations like Tesla, Meta and Hewlett Packard have already moved operations to Texas, citing lower costs and a growing talent pool.
• To further attract businesses, Texas launched on Sept. 1, 2024 a specialized business court to streamline complex business cases and to reduce backlogs in state district courts.  

In his own words: “In the end, it’s all about the cost of doing business, and the cost of doing business is just lower in Texas.” —John Diamond, an economist at Rice University 

TLR Thoughts: The creation of the Texas business court is one of the most transformative steps the state has ever taken to strengthen Texas’s economic competitiveness. This session, TLR is working with the Texas Legislature to further enhance the business court and the state’s corporate governance laws—so that Texas can further cement its status as the best place in the nation to live and to work.

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