Amazon releases finalist cities for second headquarters, including LA

The 238 cities that submitted bids to be picked as the site of Amazon's second headquarters facility have been whittled down to 20, with Los Angeles the only California city on the new list, Amazon said Thursday.

The Seattle-based internet giant plans to spend more than $5 billion on what it calls HQ2, which will provide 50,000 new high-paying jobs and support thousands of construction and other related positions. The company said 238 cities across North America submitted proposals and that 20 ``will proceed to the next step in the HQ2 process.''

"Getting from 238 to 20 was very tough,'' the company said in a tweet. "All the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity.''

Los Angeles was the only California city to make the cut, and Denver the only other city in the western United States.

The other finalists are Dallas, Austin, Nashville, Chicago, Indianapolis, Columbus, Toronto, Miami, Atlanta, Raleigh, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Newark, New York City, Boston, the northern Virginia area and Montgomery County, Maryland.

The list of finalists matches reflects what some analysts had expected -- that the company would want to diversify geographically away from the West Coast since its main headquarters are in Seattle.

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