These are the business stories to watch in 2025 in Atlanta and across Georgia

In the fast-moving world of business in Atlanta and Georgia, the new year will bring a wave of developments to watch.

A new administration in Washington and a Republican trifecta under incoming President Donald Trump are poised to make big changes that will affect the economy — including taxes, trade policy, business regulation, climate policy, energy, electric vehicles and immigration.

How will businesses, consumers and even other countries respond?

ExploreThese were the top business stories in Atlanta and Georgia in 2024

Georgia and national economies appeared to have stuck the soft landing in 2024, but will that continue in 2025?

What happens with corporate efforts to diversify their workforces and vendor bases, amid conservative efforts to clamp down on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts?

Entertainment and commercial real estate each experienced turmoil in 2024 and it’s unclear how each will fare in the new year, though there are some signs of optimism.

Artificial intelligence and sports business look poised for major years in 2025 and beyond.

These are some of the major storylines The Atlanta Journal-Constitution business team will be watching in 2025:

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Trump

Republicans will be in full control of Washington when Trump is inaugurated Jan. 20. He has promised to reverse course on a number of priorities of President Joe Biden, including climate policy, electric vehicles and taxes.

Trump won Georgia in 2024 after losing the Peach State in 2020, with more voters in pre-election polling saying they trusted him more than Vice President Kamala Harris on the economy.

Georgians are also poised to play key roles in his administration, including former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, Trump’s pick to run the Small Business Administration, and former U.S. Sen. David Perdue as ambassador to China.

Georgia has seen a wave of investment from American and foreign companies in clean technologies, green energy and electric vehicles during the Biden administration. Those investments could be at risk if Trump follows through on plans to dismantle parts of Biden’s climate and green jobs initiatives.

Some of those companies announced plans to come to Georgia before passage of two landmark pieces of legislation – the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Democrats’ climate and health law known as the Inflation Reduction Act. But Biden campaigned on promoting green jobs, EVs and renewable energy, and many of these decisions were made counting on federal support for these sectors.

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Tariffs

Trump’s plans for tariffs could ignite a global trade war, which could increase what consumers and businesses pay for goods and commodities as companies pass those costs on to purchasers. But Trump and his supporters argue tariffs will ultimately lead to job growth as companies look to onshore production to avoid such levies.

Tariffs are taxes on goods crossing a border, charges that importers typically pass along — all or in part — to customers.

If Trump follows through on his promise of across-the-board tariffs, Georgian consumers can expect higher prices for some goods and Georgia companies will likely pay more for parts and materials that come from abroad.

The countries that ship the most to Georgia are — in order — China, South Korea, Mexico, Germany, Japan and Canada.

Immigration

During the campaign, Trump vowed massive deportation of undocumented workers. His recent nominations of hard-liners like Thomas Homan as border czar and Stephen Miller as a special adviser could be signs that the effort will be aggressive.

But how wide will the net be? Will they include families, whose legal status might be different? With limited resources, who and where will they target?

If the deportation sweeps roll through Georgia, the impact might be harshest in agriculture, where immigrants are often a critical part of the workforce. But immigrants also work in construction and social assistance. Large-scale deportations could mean higher costs for getting some jobs done or even a shortage in others, like home health care and nursing homes.

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Climate, environment and energy

Trump says he wants to champion industry by unwinding Biden’s sprawling climate and environment agenda and pulling the U.S. out of the Paris agreement again.

How much he can achieve on this front is unclear. Many of the proposed changes would require passing new laws or restarting lengthy regulatory processes. The market has also shifted in the past four years, making EVs, solar panels and other green technologies cheaper and more attractive to manufacturers and consumers alike.

Even some Georgia Republican lawmakers have cautioned against drastic change that could destabilize the state’s manufacturing boom driven by electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels.

Specifically, Trump has floated the idea of axing the $7,500 tax credits for EV purchases — something that would likely require comprehensive tax reform in a closely-divided House and Senate. That could blunt momentum for EVs.

The future of EVs is a key issue in Georgia.

EV maker Rivian paused its planned $5 billion factory east of Atlanta in March. It has since inked a partnership with Volkswagen and won conditional approval of a $6 billion federal loan to restart the Georgia factory, though final approval is pending. (Cox Enterprises, which owns The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, also owns about a 3% stake in Rivian.)

The first phase of the $7.6 billion Hyundai Metaplant opened near Savannah in 2024, and the company is looking to potentially add hybrid vehicles to the mix.

Trump wants to scotch pollution standards aimed at pushing the automotive sector to build and sell more EVs, and do away with new pollution standards for power plants. But it takes years to finalize federal regulations, and they are not easily undone through the normal administrative process.

Georgia’s attorney general, Chris Carr, a conservative Republican with gubernatorial ambitions, has joined several legal challenges against some of the pollution standards. The U.S. Supreme Court has already weakened federal agencies’ ability to regulate industry on climate and environment, setting the stage for more legal battles in the year ahead.

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Inflation and interest rates

Biden’s tenure was marked by inflation caused by a mix of post-pandemic demand for goods and services, broken supply chains and the impact of pandemic-era stimulus programs passed during both the Trump and Biden administrations coursing through the economy.

The Federal Reserve hiked rates to tame inflation, while trying to keep the economy from plunging into recession. Those efforts tamed price increases, but the lasting effect of inflation hurt Biden, as well as Harris when she took over as the Democratic nominee. The Fed cut its benchmark rate three times in 2024, though further cuts are uncertain.

Trump’s proposed tariffs and immigration plans could trigger inflation, something that is the Fed’s mission to fight. Its primary tool is interest rates.

Return to office

UPS, Amazon and Walmart were among high-profile companies that ordered their white-collar workers back to the office. Will more follow suit? Could that be a boon to the struggling office market?

There’s a lot of empty and unwanted office space in metro Atlanta, which has in turn hurt businesses that traditionally rely on office workers in the towers above them to buy goods. Emptier offices are also worth less than fuller ones, meaning it could hurt local tax collections. Will 2025 be a year of turnaround?

Office leasing activity picked up momentum during 2024, and the construction pipeline for new workplace projects is slowing to a trickle. If demand continues to rebound and supply of new space becomes constrained, it could help chip away at the glut of vacant space on the market and lessen the amount of distress looming over the sector.

Many older and struggling buildings, however, might not have a feasible future as office space. Some could emerge as candidates for residential conversion, while others may sit empty or face demolition.

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Delta and Hartsfield-Jackson turn 100

Both Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport will celebrate their 100th birthdays in 2025. The airline and airport are vital parts of metro Atlanta’s economy that have helped fuel the rise of the region and city to the world stage.

Delta, the first U.S. airline to reach the century mark and Georgia’s largest private employer, is planning major celebrations throughout the year. They kick off with a keynote address at a tech conference in Las Vegas in January, as well as a March gala and the reopening of a revamped Delta Flight Museum.

Hartsfield-Jackson also plans a lengthy celebration of its own, starting early in the year ahead of the 100th anniversary of the signing of the legislation that created the airport — which is now the world’s busiest.

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Commercial real estate

High interest rates and reduced office usage has hurt commercial landlords. There will still likely be pain ahead as mortgages on commercial buildings come due and interest rates remain elevated.

Some buildings in 2024 were sold at significant discounts compared to their previous sale, leading some developers and landlords to see opportunity among struggling offices.

Both in urban centers and the suburbs, developers are looking to convert some office towers and office parks into other things like hotels and apartments. Those are challenging projects, but successful conversions take away unneeded office space while providing more housing or accommodations that are in high demand.

Downtown redevelopment

Downtown Atlanta is the front door to the city, but it’s also an area that’s lost its vibrancy. Several efforts are underway to revitalize the city center, especially as the 2026 World Cup soon prepares to come to the city.

The largest downtown development in progress is the $5 billion Centennial Yards district, which is revamping the Gulch into apartments, hotels, offices and entertainment venues. The project’s first two towers are expected to finish construction and open in 2025 and could generate some momentum.

It will be the second year that the Atlanta Tech Village founders have owned South Downtown’s sprawling portfolio of century-old buildings that take up 10 city blocks. The owners are focusing on making the area a hub for entrepreneurs and startups.

Development teams were selected in 2024 for multiple other pivotal downtown projects, including the residential conversion of the former government offices at 2 Peachtree St. and redeveloping the former Georgia Dome site.

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Sports

Atlanta will be in the spotlight in January as host of the College Football Playoff Championship game. July will bring the Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Truist Park.

The World Cup isn’t until 2026, but between now and then, much needs to be done before Atlanta plays host to eight matches.

With 2026 on the horizon, it’ll be a significant year for those projects and their promises to breathe new life into the city.

Future of Atlanta’s former Turner cable networks

Thanks to media mogul Ted Turner, Atlanta was a key player in the development of cable television. Many of the networks he created, such as CNN, TBS, TNT and TCM, still exist.

However, the surge in popularity of streaming services has left most, if not all, legacy cable networks with an uncertain future. The Turner networks are now under the Warner Bros. Discovery umbrella, which wrote down the value of all of its TV networks by more than $9 billion in 2024.

In December, WBD split itself into two units – one for its studio and streaming operations, and the other for its cable networks. That decision better positions WBD to sell off individual networks if it sees fit.

Artificial intelligence, data centers, etc.

Data center projects have become common in metro Atlanta, with several proposed during 2023 and 2024. In 2025, many of those sites will begin or continue construction, making way for countless computer servers to call the region their home.

The sheer number, size and power demands from these data centers has begun to generate controversy across Georgia, especially as incentive programs continue to attract them to the state. Gov. Brian Kemp vetoed legislation in 2024 that would have suspended a statewide incentive sales tax incentive program, so it’ll be pertinent to see if that topic resurfaces.

In addition, Georgia Power received the green light from the Public Service Commission to increase its electricity generation capacity – mostly through the burning of fossil fuels – to meet the coming demand of power-hungry projects like data centers. If more data centers join Georgia’s development pipeline, the state’s electrical grid will continue to be a point of focus.

Customers will learn a lot about how Georgia Power plans to meet the wave of demand it says is coming in January. That’s when the utility will submit its next long-range plan to meet its customers’ electricity needs to the PSC for approval.

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DEI and companies’ commitments to it

2024 saw more and more companies pull back from diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, including Walmart, Lowe’s and Ford, in the face of pushback and legal threats from conservative activists. As President-elect Donald Trump sets up his new administration, 2025 will now have the federal government pressuring businesses to end diversity work.

On Dec. 22, Trump told a crowd at an event hosted by conservative group Turning Point USA he would end all of the “diversity, equity and inclusion policies across the entire federal government immediately.” He also promised to ban DEI programs from the private sector.

Trump is also placing DEI opponents in his administration.

Vice President-elect JD Vance as a senator cosponsored legislation over the summer to eliminate DEI programs from the federal government. Trump’s pick for deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, spent the past few years suing the Biden Administration and corporations like Amazon over diversity initiatives through his organization America First Legal.

Trump’s choice to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Harmeet Dhillon, is a conservative California lawyer who Trump praised for “suing corporations who use woke policies to discriminate against their workers” in announcing the pick on social media.