Amazon plans $5b second HQ

Amazon has plans to build a $5 billion second headquarters in North America.

It will be a full equal to its existing Seattle headquarters and will be called Amazon HQ2.

Amazon is one of Seattle’s largest employers, and the firm could hire as many as 50,000 workers at the new headquarters.

Amazon said it’s looking for a metropolitan area that is more than 1 million in population and has the ability to attract and retain technical talent.

The company is seeking requests for proposals from cities to be submitted by Oct. 19. The final site selection is expected to be announced sometime next year.

The company said there are now 40,000 employees at its 33-building, 8.1 million-square-foot Seattle campus.