Amazon confirms New York City and Arlington, Virginia as HQ2 locations

After almost a year-long search for a home for Amazon's new headquarters, the company has settled for not one but two new locations for its new offices. Confirming an earlier report, these will be located in Long Island in New York City and National Landing in Arlington, Virginia.

The company is planning an investment of $5 billion at these locations and is expected to create 50,000 new jobs, with each location hiring a rough equal 25,000 people. The company will start hiring at both locations sometime next year, and will also be creating 5,000 additional jobs at its new Operations Centre for Excellence in Downtown Nashville.

A part of why the company decided to split the new headquarters between two locations was its desire to court more talent, a sentiment reflected in CEO Jeff Bezos' comment on the matter:

“We are excited to build new headquarters in New York City and Northern Virginia. These two locations will allow us to attract world-class talent that will help us to continue inventing for customers for years to come. The team did a great job selecting these sites, and we look forward to becoming an even bigger part of these communities.”

The governors of both New York and Virginia lauded the decision and were quick to point out the many jobs that will be created in the vicinity as a result. Though, they're not there for free; Amazon is getting $1.5 billion in incentives from New York and an additional $573 million from North Virginia to locate their new offices there.

Source: Amazon | Image via Seattle City Council (Flickr)