Houston can have Michelin. Dallas is too busy building their own national stock exchange.
The new leadership group for the Texas Stock Exchange gathered in Austin with Gov. Greg Abbott to announce their new venture has plans to start trading in late 2025 according to Axios.
The founders (who, to be clear, are mostly white men) have a lot to boast about, telling WFAA they’ve raised more than $135 million, making them “the most well-capitalized national securities exchange applicant to ever file a registration” with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. They plan to formally register in the next few months.
The leadership team includes former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who will serve as director for the exchange. Perry has recently stepped back into the limelight both with this venture and his September announcement to serve as current House Speaker Dade Phelan’s senior advisor. The organization also has backing from major industry players like BlackRock and Citadel.
One thing is certain, Texas — and Texans — have the money to make this work. Axios pulled together some numbers showing that if Texas were a country, its GDP would fall just behind France ($3.1 trillion) and above Brazil and Italy ($2.3 trillion) coming in at $2.6 trillion. (Fun fact, Texas has the second-largest Latino economy in the U.S., at $687 billion from the goods, services, and spending power attributed to this group.)
The exchange will be headquartered in Dallas with an “iconic bell-ringing venue and broadcast center.” It’s unclear if it intends to take back the iconic Wall Street Bull — as its website says the bull market is coming home — or if it’ll go with the iconic Dallas pegasus, which symbolizes wealth, power, and fame.
