Texas Leads Our 2026 State Leaderboard, With Ohio Close Behind

The Location Decision Tracker has logged 396 corporate location decisions for 2026 so far, carrying $593.6 billion in announced capital and about 154,000 jobs across 41 states. That already tops our full-year counts for 2023 (334), 2024 (303) and 2025 (335), with two months still on the calendar. We built the 2026 set later and with a wider sweep, so part of that jump is us getting better at finding projects. We are reading the totals as a floor and the state rankings as the real news.

Think of the 2026 map as a stock chart with a few giant candles on it. Two projects worth $100 billion apiece can make a state look like a runaway leader by dollars while barely moving its project count. So we ranked states three ways.

Texas leads, which surprises nobody. Ohio in second place is the more interesting result. Its 33 projects put it ahead of Georgia and well clear of the rest of the Midwest, with Indiana the next closest at 17. Ohio's single largest entry is SB Energy's proposed $33.3 billion, 9.2-gigawatt natural gas power project in Piketon, on the same former Energy Department site where OpenAI plans an AI data center campus. We still list the power project as provisional. Take it out and Ohio still holds second by count.

Figures come from the Location Decision Tracker as of Oct. 26, 2026. Each announced decision counts once. Capex and jobs are as announced by the company or its public partners and mix committed, planned and proposed figures; 61 projects did not disclose capex, so they are left out of the dollar ranking. The totals include 81 provisional records, which still need a primary source or a firmer figure. Counting confirmed projects alone, 2026 stands at 288 projects, $457.6 billion and about 105,800 jobs. States are assigned by the project's listed location. Explore every project on the Tracker, and if your state's numbers look off, tell us at [email protected].