Virginia moved up to No. 3 in CNBC’s 2026 ranking of America’s Top States for Business, with infrastructure, education and technology helping keep the Commonwealth among the country’s leading destinations for companies, workers and investment.
Virginia rose one position from No. 4 in 2025, finishing behind Ohio and North Carolina. Ohio earned the top ranking for the first time, followed by North Carolina at No. 2. Texas and Minnesota completed the top five.
Hampton Roads is central to several of those strengths.
Virginia’s No. 3 ranking is a statewide achievement, but one of its strongest foundations is unmistakably regional.
The ships moving through the harbor, the products manufactured here, the technologies developed here and the transportation systems connecting them to the world all contribute to the business environment CNBC recognized.
Hampton Roads is not simply benefiting from Virginia’s standing as one of America’s best states for business. It is helping make that standing possible.
The result continued Virginia’s long history near the top of CNBC’s annual study. The Commonwealth has earned the No. 1 ranking six times since the study began, more than any other state.
Virginia’s strongest results in 2026 included a No. 2 ranking in infrastructure, No. 5 in education, No. 6 in technology and innovation, No. 7 in quality of life, and No. 10 in both workforce and access to capital.
Those strengths carried additional weight this year because CNBC made infrastructure the most heavily weighted category in its study. The network also added ease of permitting to the evaluation for the first time and expanded its consideration of the transportation, energy, water and communications systems businesses depend on.
For Hampton Roads, the ranking provides national recognition for investments, institutions and companies that have been developing across the region for years.
Hampton Roads powers Virginia’s infrastructure advantage
The Port of Virginia completed its $450 million harbor project in early 2026, creating a 55-foot commercial shipping channel—the deepest on the East Coast—and channels wide enough to safely accommodate two-way traffic by the largest container ships in Atlantic trade.
The project gives ships access without tidal restrictions or overhead obstructions while allowing two ultra-large container vessels to move through the harbor at the same time. That improves vessel flow, terminal efficiency and the port’s ability to accommodate future cargo growth.
The deepening work was completed in late February, two years after the widening portion of the project was finished. The port has also added a fourth berth capable of handling ultra-large container vessels and is developing a fifth as part of the ongoing renovation of Norfolk International Terminals.
When that work is complete, the port expects to have annual capacity to process 5.8 million twenty-foot equivalent units, the standard measurement used for container cargo.
The scale of the port’s impact extends well beyond the waterfront. A study cited by the Virginia Port Authority estimates that port-related activity supports more than 565,000 jobs and contributes $63 billion annually to Virginia’s gross domestic product.
The region is also continuing to invest in the roads, bridges and tunnels that connect the port, military installations, employers and population centers.
In June, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced a loan of up to $310.2 million to the Hampton Roads Transportation Accountability Commission for the Hampton Roads Express Lanes Network.
The loan supports a broader $1.019 billion project that includes improvements at the I-64 and I-464 interchange, the construction and conversion of express lanes, and an integrated tolling system across the network.
Federal transportation officials said the work is intended to reduce congestion and improve travel reliability for commuters and freight moving to and from the Virginia port system.
These projects show why infrastructure carries value well beyond construction itself. Transportation capacity affects how efficiently products move, how reliably employees can reach work and whether companies view a region as capable of supporting future growth.
Major employers already operate at scale
Hampton Roads’ infrastructure advantages are not built only around projects that may arrive in the future. They already support some of Virginia’s largest and most recognizable employers.
HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding employs more than 26,000 shipbuilders and is Virginia’s largest industrial employer. Its workforce designs, builds and maintains nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines for the U.S. Navy.
Ferguson, headquartered in Newport News, reported $31.3 billion in sales during its 2025 fiscal year and operates more than 1,700 locations. Its distribution network serves residential and nonresidential construction markets across North America.
STIHL employs more than 2,300 people at its 150-acre Virginia Beach operation, where the company manufactures millions of outdoor power-equipment units each year.
Smithfield Foods has remained headquartered in Smithfield since its founding in 1936, operating in the region while serving customers and markets around the world.
Together, those companies demonstrate that Hampton Roads already has the infrastructure, workforce and supply-chain capacity to support businesses operating at national and international scale.
New investments build on those advantages
Recent economic development announcements show companies continuing to invest in that foundation.
LS Cable & System announced a new $689 million investment in Chesapeake expected to create more than 430 jobs. The project is separate from, but builds on, the company’s previously announced LS GreenLink subsea cable manufacturing and pier facility.
State economic development officials described the newer project as the largest single capital investment announced in Hampton Roads history. Together, the investments expand the region’s role in energy infrastructure, advanced manufacturing and domestic supply chains.
In James City County, KONGSBERG is developing its first U.S. missile manufacturing and maintenance facility. The company expects the operation to create more than 180 jobs and support the production, assembly, upgrade and repair of the Naval Strike Missile and Joint Strike Missile.
The facility is expected to begin manufacturing in late 2027.
Both investments reflect advantages that helped Virginia perform well in CNBC’s study: infrastructure, access to skilled workers, proximity to major customers and the ability to move materials and finished products through domestic and international supply chains.
They also align with the Hampton Roads Alliance’s regional economic development playbook, DEAL, which concentrates on four industries: defense, energy, aerospace and logistics.
The playbook identifies workforce, innovation, infrastructure and supply-chain development as the cross-cutting systems needed to grow those sectors. Its strategy is to diversify within industries where Hampton Roads already has established assets rather than pursue growth disconnected from the region’s existing capabilities.
From NASA research to commercial technology
Hampton Roads’ contribution to Virginia’s business ranking is not limited to physical infrastructure and large industrial employers.
NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton conducts research and technology development across aeronautics, space exploration, engineering and Earth science. Its capabilities include flight research, wind tunnels, simulation, advanced materials and technologies intended for future aviation and space missions.
The center also creates intellectual property that can move from federal research into commercial use.
Psionic, a Hampton-based technology company, provides one of the region’s clearest examples.
The company licensed Navigation Doppler Lidar technology developed at NASA Langley and created a smaller, more rugged commercial system capable of measuring a vehicle’s position and velocity during flight and landing.
NASA engineers originally developed the technology to use lasers rather than radar for precision navigation. Psionic licensed it through NASA’s Technology Transfer program in 2016 and continued its development with support from NASA’s small-business research programs.
The technology has since been developed for space, defense, industrial and other applications. NASA tested Psionic’s commercial navigation system aboard an F/A-18 aircraft in 2025 under conditions designed to simulate challenging lunar and Martian landings.
An earlier version of the NASA-developed technology was also carried on two commercial lunar missions in 2024, including the Intuitive Machines mission that completed the first U.S. landing on the moon since the Apollo era.
Psionic illustrates what technology transfer can look like when research remains connected to the region where it was created: intellectual property developed at NASA Langley became the foundation for a Hampton company working across commercial space, aviation and defense markets.
That connection helps put Virginia’s No. 6 technology and innovation ranking into local terms. The region is not only home to major federal research facilities. It has the opportunity to convert more of the knowledge created inside those facilities into companies, commercial products and private-sector employment.
Virginia remains among the national leaders
Not every category improved.
Virginia’s economy ranking fell from No. 14 in 2025 to No. 23 this year. CNBC attributed the decline to federal budget and personnel reductions, which have had an outsized effect on a state with a significant federal workforce and contracting sector.
The education ranking also moved from No. 1 to No. 5, although Virginia remained among the country’s leading states in the category.
Those results provide areas for continued attention, but the broader picture remains strong. Virginia improved its overall standing and finished among the top 10 in six major categories, including infrastructure, education, technology and innovation, quality of life, workforce and access to capital.
Those advantages are not the result of a single announcement or one year of investment. They have been built over time through transportation systems, research institutions, major employers, skilled workers and companies capable of turning regional assets into products and jobs.
Hampton Roads offers a clear view of how those pieces connect.
A deeper and wider harbor helps manufacturers and distributors reach global markets. Roads, bridges and tunnels connect those businesses to workers and customers. NASA research can become commercial technology. Long-established employers operate alongside companies making new investments in defense, energy, aerospace and logistics.
The CNBC ranking measures states, but the assets behind those scores are built locally.
Virginia reached No. 3 because regions across the Commonwealth gave businesses reasons to invest, expand and remain here. In Hampton Roads, those reasons can be seen in the harbor, the laboratories, the factory floors and the companies already building what comes next.
