Hey there, it's Stephen Dubner.

For the past century, one small state, Delaware, has led the nation as the place where new businesses go to incorporate.

Roughly two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies are registered in Delaware.

We thought this was worth looking into.

So a couple years ago, we published an episode

called Why Does One Tiny State Set the Rules for Everyone? But recently, Delaware seems to be losing

its grip. In 2024, a Delaware court invalidated a $56 billion compensation package

for Tesla CEO Elon Musk. So he relocated Tesla's legal incorporation to Texas, along with another of his company's

SpaceX.

And several other big firms have recently left Delaware, including Dropbox, TripAdvisor, and most

recently Andresen Horowitz, the biggest venture capital firm in the world. Three Andresen Horowitz

executives just published a post titled, We Are Leaving Delaware, and we think you should consider

leaving too. Given this growing exodus, we thought you might like to hear our original episode.

So here it is. As a bonus episode, we have updated facts and figures where

necessary. As always, thanks for listening. Walk me through your attraction to the Delaware

story. When did that begin and how? When I was a financial reporter, all roads seemed to lead to Delaware.

Elon Musk goes under the microscope in Delaware.

Twitter is set to depose the Tesla CEO in Wilmington.

95% of the corporations that are incorporated in Delaware don't really do any significant business here.

Evidence has been brought against Victor Boot for weapons trafficking

in hotspots around the world that span Afghanistan, Colombia, Rwanda, Congo.

So I had a vague understanding that Delaware was important, but not really why.

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