Top stories

The Big Read

The Long View

Delaware Was Supposed to Be Losing Companies. It Registered 334,461 New Ones.

A count of filings is not a count of consequence. Delaware's numbers went up and its legislature moved regardless, which tells you more about what is actually being contested than either fact does alone.

Rows of weathered black US Mail boxes on a wooden rack, several numbered, one hanging open with letters inside

Delaware's registry recorded 334,461 new entity formations in 2025. Most of them are filings rather than companies with employees.

Delaware's registry recorded 334,461 new business entity formations in 2025. In 2024 it recorded 289,810, and in 2023 it recorded 298,165.

For two years the story told about Delaware has been one of departure: companies reincorporating elsewhere, a body of case law that founders had stopped trusting, and rival states advertising for the business. The registry is the one count that settles whether the state lost volume. It did not.

More than 2.28 million entities are now registered in Delaware. Over two-thirds of the Fortune 500 are incorporated there. Of the initial public offerings by US-based companies last year, the state puts its share at nearly 70 percent.

Continue reading …

Opinion

What’s News

More News
Got a tip for us?

Editors read every submission. Here is how to send documents, on background or on the record.

How to submit

The Picture

Students walking along a paved path past a brick campus building, framed by the branches of a large tree.
A university campus. The law had stood for twenty-two years; it ended without anyone arguing for it in court. File photograph; not in Kansas.

Kansas's In-State Tuition Law Was Struck Down in a Case Neither Side Wanted to Win

Editor's Choice

Latest News

Everything we have published, newest first

The Numbers

The Kennedy Center Says It Cannot Make Payroll, and Its Board Has Named One Way Out

The Kennedy Center's board has told a federal court the institution cannot meet payroll or routine maintenance "within a matter of weeks" and could close as soon as Tuesday. A 57-page internal report projects $124 million of a budgeted $220 million in revenue. Internal documents describe restoring President Trump's name to the building, the subject of a lawsuit, as the only way to avoid bankruptcy.

By Thomas Gutierrez  

The Kennedy Center lit up at night beside the Potomac, its lights reflected in the water.

The Hormuz Closure

The Long View

Iran's Nuclear Chief Was Kept Out of the Room Where Its Inspections Are Argued

Austria revoked the visa of Mohammad Eslami, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, before the IAEA's General Conference opened in Vienna on Monday. The United States objected to a UN sanctions waiver for his travel, and under the committee's rules one objection was enough. Iran says the host country broke its obligations. The conference it cannot attend is the one that debates its nuclear programme.

By Cory Chamberlain  

An open passport with several colourful entry and visa stamps, photographed in shallow focus.

The Long View

Saudi Arabia's Way Around Hormuz Is Shut, and Its Way Out of the Red Sea Is Held by the Houthis

Saudi Arabia shut its East-West pipeline after drone attacks last week, closing the main route its oil had used to avoid the Strait of Hormuz. Over the weekend the Houthis took Perim Island and with it control of the Bab al-Mandab, the strait that cargoes loaded at the pipeline's Red Sea terminal must pass to reach Asia. Brent rose toward $108 on Monday.

By Cory Chamberlain  

A container ship seen from directly above, crossing deep blue water near a reef.

The Long View

The Satellite Pictures Were Bought Before the Strike and Again After It

US officials have linked satellite imagery supplied to Iran by Chinese entities to the July strike on a base in Jordan that killed three American soldiers, The Wall Street Journal reported. Iran obtained high-resolution pictures of the base before the attack and after it. The officials did not accuse the Chinese government. The disclosure lands ten days before Xi Jinping is due at the White House.

By Cory Chamberlain  

A large dish antenna on a steel tower against a dark hillside, in black and white.

What We’re Following

View all

The Numbers

Seventy-Six Dead, and the Count Finally Closes at 132

The Philippine Coast Guard recovered 41 more bodies from the MV June Aster on Saturday, raising the toll to 76 with 43 survivors and 13 missing. Those figures add up to 132, which is exactly the number who boarded. The ship was certified for 330. Overloading is no longer the question; the two explosions and the missing captain are.

By Cory Chamberlain  

Two vehicles on the open deck of a small ferry crossing a bay, in black and white.
More Stories

Opinion Voices

Argument and analysis from our columnists

Featured Voices

The reporters and editors behind the coverage

The Story So Far

State Capacity19 stories

The Cranberry Brief

Reporting on business, technology and power, each weekday morning.

We’ll only use your address to send The Cranberry Brief. Unsubscribe anytime. Read our privacy policy.