Recent Articles from Richard Foster
Power Reading: How to get on the Virginia 500
Welcome to the sixth annual edition of the Virginia 500 — Virginia Business’ 2025-26 list of the commonwealth’s most powerful and impactful leaders in business, nonprofits, government and higher education.
OurView: Will AI spell lights out for white-collar workers?
Perhaps the greatest symbol of tech companies’ uncanny valley visions or the AI-powered future are dark factories — also called lights-out factories, these AI-managed manufacturing plants are so fully automated that machines perform their work in full or near darkness 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without breaks — and largely without humans. […]
Virginia’s Fortune 500 companies
Freddie Mac, the federally sponsored mortgage business headquartered in McLean, continues to be the top-ranked Virginia-based company at No. 38, down two spots from last year, with $122 billion in annual revenue Arlington County-based defense contractors RTX and Boeing were the second and third highest ranking companies based in Virginia, with RTX moving up one […]
Virginia falls to No. 4 among CNBC’s top states for business
Virginia lost its spot at the top of CNBC's annual Top States for Business report, the cable business network announced Thursday.
OurView: Our name is United S., and we’re addicted to undocumented labor
Amid all the recent protests, debates and debacles regarding illegal immigration and the second Trump administration’s heavy-handed response to it, one truth seems to be getting lost: America is reliant on undocumented workers. In its October 2024 study, “Mass Deportation: Devastating Costs to America, Its Budget and Economy,” the left-leaning American Immigration Council found that [&he[...]
Virginia Business wins two international journalism awards
Virginia Business won two journalism awards for breaking news coverage and explanatory journalism in the 2025 Alliance of Area Business Publishers awards.
41 Virginia companies made the 2025 Fortune 1000
Forty-one companies headquartered in Virginia made the grade in Fortune magazine’s 71st annual Fortune 1000 list, and 25 Virginia companies are on this year's elite Fortune 500.
OurView: What’s fueling your startup dream?
Explore Virginia’s startup scene, from AI to VC deals, in the third annual edition of StartVirginia. Insights and inspiration for your next big idea!
OurView: Nothing new under the sun in Virginia politics
In late April, GOP lieutenant governor candidate John Reid posted a highly atypical campaign video on X. His political enemies within the party, Reid alleged, were staging a “coordinated character assassination attempt to force [him as] the first openly gay candidate off the Republican statewide ticket.” Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Reid said, had asked him to […]
Trump’s tariffs echo Hoover-era economic missteps
Trump's 2025 tariffs trigger market turmoil, drawing comparisons to Hoover's Depression-era policies and warnings from economists and business leaders.