Is New York City about to lose its crown as the financial kingpin of America to a Southern upstart like Dallas?
As major Wall Street giants like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase pack their bags for Texas, Dallas is fast becoming a serious rival to NYC, fueled by a business-friendly climate, lower taxes, and growing fears over progressive policies in the Big Apple.
The New York Post reported that Dallas has been steadily luring financial heavyweights away from the concrete jungle with promises of a better bottom line and lifestyle.
Goldman Sachs is making a bold move, building a massive 800,000-square-foot campus in Dallas worth $500 million, set to house over 5,000 employees by 2028.
Last year, they even brought on Robert Kaplan, former head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, as vice chairman, signaling a deep commitment to the Lone Star State.
JPMorgan Chase already employs more people in Texas—31,000—than in New York, where it has just 24,000, despite recently unveiling a shiny $3 billion headquarters on Park Avenue.
Dallas isn’t just talk; it’s got the numbers, with 384,000 financial sector jobs, making it the second-largest hub in the nation behind New York.
Statewide, Texas has surpassed New York in financial services workers, with 519,000 compared to 507,000, according to data from Kathryn Wylde.
Fortress Investment Group, though still registered in New York, has been expanding rapidly in Texas since 2021, operating out of a 50,000-square-foot base in an area financiers cheekily call “Y’all Street.”
Texas is rolling out the red carpet with policies like a constitutional ban on financial transaction taxes and specialized business courts designed to draw capital from traditional coastal hubs.
Dallas also offers practical perks, like a central location with flights to either U.S. coast in just over three hours, and an average commute of only 27 minutes, per St. Louis Fed data.
Let’s not forget the lifestyle appeal—think top-tier dining at spots like Carbone, plus sports and live music venues that rival any urban center.
Back in New York, whispers of a Wall Street exodus grow louder with the candidacy of Zohran Mamdani, a socialist-leaning politician whose support for higher taxes on the wealthy and controversial stances like “defund the police” have financial titans on edge.
Drew McKnight, co-CEO of Fortress Investment Group, summed it up well: “You don’t sacrifice anything by being in Dallas versus being in New York. From a business perspective, it’s easy. From a lifestyle perspective, it’s better.”
McKnight’s not wrong—while NYC clings to its status, Dallas is proving that you don’t need skyscrapers to build a financial empire, especially when Texas makes it “really easy to hire” and cuts through red tape faster than a hot knife through butter, as he also noted to sources.
