By: Andrew Carlson

For years, the steady migration of wealth and talent from America’s traditional economic power centers has been treated as a background hum—noticed, debated, but rarely framed as a coordinated movement with an ideological spine. Now, two of the nation’s most powerful financiers are giving that migration a name, a strategy, and $10 million in fuel. Stephen Ross and Ken Griffin, billionaires who once anchored New York City and Chicago, are no longer merely beneficiaries of Florida’s business-friendly climate. They are its evangelists.

As reported by The New York Post on Monday, Ross and Griffin have jointly launched a high-profile national campaign designed to persuade America’s chief executives, founders, and investors that the future of enterprise no longer runs through Manhattan or Silicon Valley, but through South Florida’s Gold Coast. Their initiative, tellingly named Ambition Accelerated, represents one of the most assertive efforts yet to reposition Florida not just as a tax haven, but as the country’s premier engine for scalable innovation.

Ross, the founder of global real estate powerhouse Related Companies and now the driving force behind its South Florida-focused offshoot, Related Ross, has little patience for euphemisms. “The only place a CEO or founder can scale from 10 employees to 10,000 will be in South Florida,” he told The New York Post. “While other cities are still special, they no longer support building business and supporting ambition like you can find here. The next generation of transformational leaders in business will come from South Florida.”

That declaration is more than boosterism. It is a direct indictment of the regulatory and political environments that Ross and Griffin argue have smothered growth in places like New York and California. In the promotional video prepared for the campaign, both men lean into that contrast, declaring that “Florida is the future” and predicting that the state will evolve into the “new Silicon Valley.” The messaging, as The New York Post report noted, is calibrated to resonate with founders who feel constrained rather than cultivated by the cities that once defined American capitalism.

The personal stakes are immense, though hardly existential for either man. Griffin, founder of the Citadel hedge fund and one of the richest individuals in the world, is estimated by Forbes to be worth approximately $51.3 billion. Ross, whose real estate empire reshaped skylines from New York to Abu Dhabi, is valued at roughly $17 billion. Both have already cast their lot with Florida. Griffin famously decamped from Chicago to Miami, while Ross shifted his base from New York City to South Florida.

Yet what distinguishes Ambition Accelerated from the quieter relocations of the past is its intentionality. Rather than merely responding to policy drift elsewhere, Ross and Griffin are actively courting America’s business class. Through national advertising and targeted outreach, the campaign pitches Florida’s southeastern corridor—from Miami through Fort Lauderdale to West Palm Beach—as the optimal environment for companies seeking to scale rapidly without being strangled by red tape.

Beyond glossy messaging, the effort includes a concierge-style support system for executives considering the move. According to the information provided in The New York Post report, the program connects founders with local resources to facilitate relocation, helping them navigate regulatory requirements, identify real estate, move operations, and establish corporate infrastructure. It is, in effect, a soft landing designed to remove friction from what can otherwise be a daunting decision.

That such a campaign is necessary speaks volumes about the current state of America’s traditional business hubs. For more than a decade, companies have been drifting away from high-tax, high-regulation states, a trend that accelerated sharply during the COVID pandemic. Remote work shattered geographic assumptions, while lockdown policies and rising crime rates deepened disillusionment among executives. Still, as The New York Post report observed, this marks one of the first times that elite business leaders have sought to formalize the exodus into a coherent narrative about where ambition is still welcome.

Critics are quick to point out that Ross and Griffin stand to benefit handsomely from such a migration. Griffin’s Palm Beach residence alone is valued at an astonishing $1 billion, and he is in the midst of redeveloping a shopping center in the area while expanding Citadel’s $2.5 billion headquarters in Miami. Ross, meanwhile, has invested approximately $10 billion in South Florida real estate through Related Ross, placing him at the epicenter of the region’s transformation.

Yet advisors close to the campaign, speaking to The New York Post, insist that the motivation runs deeper than self-interest. Both men, they say, are animated by a genuine belief that the future of American business depends on whether entrepreneurs can find jurisdictions that actively enable growth rather than merely tolerate it. In their view, such places are becoming scarce—and Florida is one of the last large-scale exceptions.

The ideological contours of that belief were on display when Ross and Griffin unveiled the initiative at the Wall Street Journal’s Invest Live conference in West Palm Beach. Signage at the event distilled the argument into a stark binary. One sign read, “They regulate ambition.” Nearby, another declared, “We accelerate it.” The juxtaposition was unmistakable, and The New York Post reported that attendees understood precisely which cities were being cast in each role.

Griffin, in particular, has been increasingly vocal about his frustration with Democratic governance at the national and state levels. Speaking recently at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he criticized the former Biden administration’s regulatory approach as “exhausting” and said it had “cost the US economy dearly.” His remarks echoed a sentiment widely shared among executives who argue that uncertainty and compliance burdens have dampened risk-taking.

That frustration is not merely theoretical. The economic consequences of aggressive taxation proposals are becoming tangible. The California Post reported that the Golden State lost nearly $1 trillion in wealth in a single month amid fears surrounding a proposed “Billionaire Tax” ballot initiative. While it remains unclear how much of that capital flowed directly to Florida, the trend line is unmistakable. As The New York Post report documented, New York City alone has reportedly lost at least $14 billion in tax revenue to Florida since 2020.

Those figures help explain why Florida’s appeal extends beyond sun and sand. With no state income tax, comparatively light regulation, and a political culture that openly courts business, the state has positioned itself as a refuge for entrepreneurs weary of what they see as ideological hostility toward wealth creation. Ross and Griffin are now attempting to transform that refuge into a magnet.

There is also a demographic dimension to the campaign. South Florida’s Gold Coast offers more than favorable balance sheets; it provides access to global markets, international talent, and a lifestyle that executives increasingly prioritize. Miami’s emergence as a financial hub has been one of the most striking economic developments of the past decade, and West Palm Beach has followed suit, attracting private equity firms, hedge funds, and tech startups at a pace few predicted.

By branding Florida as the place where companies can scale “from 10 employees to 10,000,” Ross is invoking a vision of growth that feels almost anachronistic in cities where expansion often triggers regulatory scrutiny rather than celebration. In New York and California, critics argue, success can be penalized with higher taxes, tighter rules, and political suspicion. Florida, by contrast, is positioning itself as a partner in growth.

Whether Florida can sustain that role remains an open question. Infrastructure, housing affordability, and environmental resilience will all be tested as population and investment surge. But Ross and Griffin are wagering that those challenges are more manageable than the entrenched policy frameworks they left behind.

For New York, the implications are sobering. As The New York Post has repeatedly highlighted, the city’s loss of high-net-worth individuals and corporate headquarters is not merely symbolic. It erodes the tax base that funds public services, exacerbating fiscal pressures and fueling a cycle of decline. The sight of two former New York titans now spending millions to persuade others to leave only sharpens that sense of reckoning.

In the end, Ambition Accelerated is about more than geography. It is a statement about values—about whether American cities see ambition as an asset to be nurtured or a liability to be constrained. Ross and Griffin have made their answer clear. By betting their capital, their credibility, and their influence on Florida, they are daring the rest of the country to respond.

As The New York Post reported, this is not just a marketing campaign; it is a challenge to America’s economic establishment. If Florida succeeds in becoming the default destination for builders and innovators, the consequences will ripple far beyond state lines. The question is no longer whether the great migration is real. It is whether the places being left behind are willing—or able—to change before ambition finishes packing its bags.