Mike Wuerthele
Following in the footsteps of Apple and Google, Amazon appears ready to start the process to build a massive headquarters in North America — but for Amazon it will serve as a second base of operations to supplement its existing headquarters in Seattle, Wash.
First spotted by Reuters on Thursday, Amazon made the declaration that it would spend more than $5 billion on a new facility. In a statement, the company announced that it would serve up to 50,000 employees.
Amazon has not declared any locations that it prefers, or has ruled out. The company says that he location it chooses be a "stable and business-friendly environment" and have "communities that think big and creatively when considering locations and real estate options."
Amazon has requested that local and state governments contact the company with proposals. The company notes that Amazon delivered $38 billion to Seattle's economy since 2010.
At present, Amazon occupies part or all of 33 buildings in Seattle, spanning 8.1 million square feet. It has spent $3.7 billion on capital investments in the facilities.
"We expect HQ2 to be a full equal to our Seattle headquarters," said Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. "Amazon HQ2 will bring billions of dollars in up-front and ongoing investments, and tens of thousands of high-paying jobs. We're excited to find a second home."
As of yet, there is no timetable for completion, or a deadline for the proposals from assorted governments.
Amazon's investment in the headquarters appears similar to Apple Park's. While exact figures are not known, Apple Park is said to have taken north of $5 billion to construct — and has gone over schedule.
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29 Comments
..and I bet the same people that called Apple Park an "insane" expense for Apple, the richest company on the world, "careless, irresponsible" spending (lol sog35), and shit on the project when Apple's stock price was a bit lower, claiming they should "scrap" or "delay" it, will be the same people cheering on this project, even though Amazon does not even make a tiny fraction of Apple's profits.
Apple: "We're a very profitable company and we're going to spend $5 billion on a new HQ."
Pundits: "Apple is foolishly wasting money because they're out of ideas! Sell! Sell! Sell!"
Amazon: "We're lucky to break even in a given quarter and we're going to spend $5 billion on a new HQ."
Pundits: "Amazon is investing in their future. Buy! Buy! Buy!"
Amazon makes some profit and loses some profit year after year. They're not actually making a TON of money. Not even close. Not even remotely close to Apple. Now they want to copy what Apple did and make some huge fancy place with which will cost a bundle which Amazon really doesn't have. It's mostly smoke and mirrors and yet it's been working for them.
Now they're basically getting city's to fight over them building in their City which I'm going to assume be Tax breaks and what not to get them to come to them. I think what little money they actually have should go into paying debt or at least something better them a big fancy office space. Apple's UFO was like pocket change to Apple. If they wanted to, they could build them all over the U.S. That would be silly, but they could do it and still not go into debt.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmarkman/2017/05/23/the-amazon-era-no-profits-no-problem/2/#31a6e95f437a