Which states are these companies located?

[ss20ts]

Perhaps the OP (Heath) was looking into a college course/credit transfer database to see what Sophia credits have been known to come into for a specific school. In that sort of database Sophia would need to be listed 'somewhere'. I'd guess they'd default it to the company headquarter location, and in the case of Sophia (that the OP mentioned) they are indeed based in MN - https://www.sophia.org/contact-us/

If you go to the provider's page, it is likely you can learn their location on the About or Contact pages (such as the Sophia example above).

Not necessarily. Some colleges just log them under ACE or Credly. All colleges don't have databases sorted by state. Some are alphabetical. None of these provider are colleges though so they may not appear in databases. Many colleges don't accept ACE credit and most that do are limited in what they accept so it's best to contact the college directly and ask admissions about ACE credits and to search their college catalog for info.