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…