Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire

by Brad Stone

Instead of developing numerous offices in multiple cities, or negotiating privately with one location for a satellite office, Amazon would announce its intention to create a second headquarters—an equal to its home in Seattle. It would then open the site selection process to all cities in North America and allow them to compete for a prize of some fifty thousand jobs and $5 billion in capital investments over a span of fifteen years. Such a process, Bezos argued, could highlight what communities coveted from the company instead of what its critics feared about it. “Part of it was a cheerleading exercise,” said a member of the HQ2 team, who like many others involved, declined to speak on the record for fear of retribution. “Who wanted us? That would come through in the process itself.”