Samsung, less than a year after moving its U.S. headquarters to Englewood Cliffs — and having an event to mark the occasion — on Monday quietly announced another move that will reverberate loudly in New Jersey: It is moving to Plano, Texas.
The move, expected to be completed by the end of year, is a shocker. With little explanation.
The company, in a statement first reported in South Korea, said it is moving to strengthen synergies with its semiconductor operations in the region. Almost all of the approximately 1,000 employees in New Jersey will be impacted.
To be sure, Plano is home to the company’s mobile and network business office. The company also operates a semiconductor plant in nearby Austin and is expected to soon open its advanced foundry plant in Taylor.
Of course, all this was known when the company made a dynamic move from Ridgefield Park to Englewood Cliffs last fall.
Last fall, CEO Yoonie Joung praised New Jersey, where the company has called home for the past 40 years, with more than 460,000 square feet of managed space across five locations.
“It is the people and places where we do business that make our success possible,” he said. Joung noted the new campus “blends innovation, sustainability and community engagement.”
Joung talked about how the company and its employees were a part of the North Jersey community.
What’s changed is unclear.
Samsung did not discuss why it is leaving New Jersey. The governor’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.
This much is clear: Samsung’s move to Texas is the first big business moment of Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s administration – one that surely will impact budget negotiations.
Will Samsung’s move impact the “revenue raisers” the administration is proposing, new taxes that will impact large companies the most.
Will it make the state rethink its corporate business tax, one of the highest in the country.
Michele Siekerka, the CEO of the N.J. Business & Industry Association, certainly hopes so. She called the departure of Samsung — and others — something that has to be recognized and rectified.
“Today’s announcement from Samsung less than a year after it opened its new New Jersey headquarters, and on the heels of Exxon’s recent corporate departure from the Garden State after 144 years, is not surprising, but it is no less sad,” she said.
“These are the results of decades of anti-business policies in the state. With New Jersey maintaining the highest corporate tax rate in the nation, by far, and its national reputation for business unfriendliness through regulation and other costs and burdens, we have seen our Fortune 500 companies go from 22 in 2018 to 15 in 2025.”
Was the move about taxes — Texas is one of the cheapest places to have a business — or corporate consolidation?
That is unclear.
But this much is certain. New Jersey tops Texas in all the categories that usually attract international companies:
- Superior schools;
- Cultural hot spots that match the native country;
- Progressive values that play well internationally;
- Access to capital and NYC investors.
And yet, Samsung is headed to Texas, which has become a hub for tech companies – many of which have moved there from California, citing better taxes.
Samsung only said this: “We are making preparations with the goal of completing the relocation within this year. The headquarters’ operating structure and staffing plans will be finalized after thorough review.”
