The company was still concerned about the daunting task of hiring 50,000 employees at once—even spread out among two locations. New York’s unexpectedly strong opposition made the solution obvious. Rather than fight a potentially losing battle, it would simply drop its Long Island City plans altogether and spread its 25,000 positions among the company’s 17 existing tech hubs around the country.
That left Virginia—America’s Top State for Business—the last state standing.
The company is finalizing plans for two 22-story office towers, with much more development to come. And it has begun hiring. The first division expected to open at HQ2 is expected to be the Alexa unit, which makes Amazon’s smart speaker system.
“Virginia is a terrific place to do business,” Huseman said. “They’re willing to partner with companies, they’re willing to think long-term, and they’re willing to think big picture. That’s what really stood out about Virginia.”.....
After AOC said NYET
The company was still concerned about the daunting task of hiring 50,000 employees at once—even spread out among two locations. New York’s unexpectedly strong opposition made the solution obvious. Rather than fight a potentially losing battle, it would simply drop its Long Island City plans altogether and spread its 25,000 positions among the company’s 17 existing tech hubs around the country.
That left Virginia—America’s Top State for Business—the last state standing.
The company is finalizing plans for two 22-story office towers, with much more development to come. And it has begun hiring. The first division expected to open at HQ2 is expected to be the Alexa unit, which makes Amazon’s smart speaker system.
“Virginia is a terrific place to do business,” Huseman said. “They’re willing to partner with companies, they’re willing to think long-term, and they’re willing to think big picture. That’s what really stood out about Virginia.”
Amazon reveals the truth about why the company nixed New York and chose Northern Virginia for its HQ2. Top on its list was the region's tech talent pipeline. The tech giant used data analysis, including CNBC's Top States for Business study, to access the quality of each state's workforce...
www.cnbc.com
I believe Amazon gave Long Island, in the end (-

partial funding of the housing that had been in the nixed deal. Cuomo said at the time it was the low point of his admin.
150K a year jobs