Amazon is looking to build a second headquarters in North America and is asking city development organisations to pitch to them as a potential host.

The company is pledging to invest $5 billion in constructing its latest headquarters, which it claims will be a "full equal" to its Seattle campus. The HQ will also directly create over 50,000 jobs.

Along with the direct investment from Amazon, the firm expects additional investment to come in through maintaining the headquarters. It claims that this will generate tens of thousands more jobs and tens of billions of dollars for the surrounding community.

Strong talent

"We are looking for a location with strong local and regional talent—particularly in software development and related fields—as well as a stable and business-friendly environment to continue hiring and innovating on behalf of our customers," states Amazon on its HQ2 website.

As to why Amazon is making the process so public, it claims that "we want to find a city that is excited to work with us and where our customers, employees, and the community can all benefit."

Amazon most recently reportedly acquired backend-as-a-service firm GameSparks for $10 million in July 2017. No official confirmation of the deal was given at the time.