CNBC CEO Council member Brian Casey sits in the front row of Y’all Street.
Over the past few years, Dallas has turned into a hotbed for the financial services sector, with big office and headcount commitments from companies such as: goldman sachs, morgan stanley and JP Morgan Chase.
This is based on Texas’ significant growth in industry in all sectors, currently boasting the most Fortune 500 companies of any U.S. state, and a massive population boom seen throughout the state.
The lure of lower taxes and less regulation has always drawn companies to Texas, but recent moves to become more business-friendly have resonated with the corporate community, particularly executives and companies such as Elon Musk and ExxonMobil who have taken issue with Delaware’s interpretation of the law.
Dallas’ efforts to become a corporate hub took another step this summer with the opening of the Texas Stock Exchange, which is backed by some of the world’s largest institutional investors, including BlackRock, Citadel and Charles Schwab.
Mr. Casey, CEO of a Dallas-based asset management company westwood holdings groupThe TXSE investor said last week that he was “very bullish” on what was happening on the exchange.
So, from the perspective of someone with long-standing roots in the community, what is attracting companies to Dallas and this new exchange?
“This is the result of a combination of factors,” Casey said, praising Texas politicians and business leaders for working together.
“First and foremost, I’ve always said we’re in the heart of the country. We have the largest and busiest airport in the world, and you can go to either coast and take a day trip if you want. Delaware is a very convenient place to get in and out of. But beyond that, we’ve made a real effort to compete with Delaware in terms of strengthening our business courts, codifying business judgment rules, and making it easier and cheaper to implement in Texas,” Casey said.
So far, that message seems to be resonating. Pipeline company Energy Transfer and fuel distributor Sunoco recently announced that they will change their listings from the NYSE to the TXSE. Retailer Dillard’s also announced that it will move from the New York Stock Exchange to the Texas Stock Exchange when it reincorporates in Texas in 2025.
Westwood is playing a role as well, launching the exchange’s first new ETF, the Westwood Saliant Enhanced Power & Infrastructure ETF, which will join the company’s other ETFs already listed on both the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq — Westwood itself is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
AI trade is certainly becoming more complex as debates over safety and underdevelopment grow.
However, the underlying beliefs about A.I. Nvidia It is the most valuable publicly traded company, with AI spending among mega-cap companies reaching more than $750 billion this year and showing no signs of slowing down.
But Casey said that while the focus has been on these large-cap stocks and semiconductor companies from an investor perspective, the underlying energy ecosystem that powers them is now the place to invest.
That’s why Westwood is launching this new ETF that invests across the power ecosystem, from traditional utilities to grid infrastructure to next-generation technologies.
“It’s very interesting when you think about what’s happened over the last three years. It’s all about who can build the fastest chips, who can scale the biggest hyperscalers. So it’s all about demand, and there’s an insatiable demand for compute power,” Casey said. “But all the computing power that is generated drags a lot of necessary infrastructure behind it: very large gas turbines, water servers, coolers, and even the skilled labor needed to build these.”
Mr. Casey said that from his company’s perspective, this energy boom is a “10-year expansion” that will require more than $600 billion in investments. “We need 50 gigawatts of power (for data centers) by 2030, but right now we have 2,000 gigawatts waiting to be connected to power (interconnection),” he said, highlighting some of the challenges facing the existing energy grid.
“You actually get to the point where you don’t need faster chips,” Casey says. “We’ve got the fastest chip we need, but when it comes to power and everything that goes with it, you can’t just flip a switch and build it overnight. It’s going to take years and years and years.”
Casey said the Dallas-based asset manager and Houston-based energy team haven’t forgotten the symbolism of launching an energy-focused ETF on the Dallas-based exchange, saying the moment reflects “the next chapter in U.S. capital markets.”
“Texas and Dallas are truly experiencing an economic miracle,” Casey said.
