North Carolina has reclaimed its top spot as the best place to do business in the United States less than 10 years after it faced corporate backlash over legislation that was seen as anti-transgender.
According to CNBC's annual nationwide analysis, the Tar Heel State takes top honors for business investment in 2025, followed by Texas and Florida in third.
Texas previously finished at the top of the list in 2023 and 2022.
CNBC found that North Carolina's GDP grew by 3.7% last year – the fifth-strongest in the country – and the state was ranked fourth in terms of having a well-rounded workforce.
It also finished in the top tier of STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] employees and for its pipeline of vocational and on-the-job-trained workers.
"North Carolina offers the ideal combination of talent, infrastructure, and forward-thinking leadership to support our mission to reshape aviation," Tom O'Leary, CEO and co-founder of JetZero, an aviation startup, told the outlet.
Last month, JetZero announced that it will build its first factory in Greensboro, bringing 14,500 jobs to the state.
Also in June, Amazon announced that it plans to invest $10 billion in North Carolina to build new data centers. That's in addition to the $12 billion the company says it has invested in the state since 2010.
"This latest expansion is a testament to the state's thriving business ecosystem and talented workforce," the company said in a statement obtained by CNBC.
North Carolina's return to first place comes nine years after the state faced a corporate boycott over a bill passed by Republican lawmakers in 2016 that banned transgender people from bathrooms that aligned with their gender identity.
According to the Daily Mail, reaction from major companies at the time was swift: The NCAA relocated championship games, PayPal and Deutsche Bank canceled investments and Apple slammed the state's legislation.
Rounding out the top five in CNBC's rankings were Virginia, in fourth place, and Ohio, in fifth.
The outlet's analysis noted that Massachusetts was this year's most improved state, having moved up 18 spots to finish at number 20 overall.
Louisiana, Rhode Island, Montana, Hawaii and Alaska closed out the bottom of the list as the least-business friendly states, according to CNBC.
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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