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This is a long-winded expose of northern Virginia. I only made it about half-way through, there were some subsidies promised apparently. In any case, I never
by linuxftw 7y ago
This is a long-winded expose of northern Virginia. I only made it about half-way through, there were some subsidies promised apparently.
In any case, I never considered locations other than Northern VA as viable for the HQ2 business, it was 90% going there from the start IMO due to 1) Existing Amazon Offices 2) Existing Amazon Datacenters and major internet exchanges 3) Proximity to DC.
So, to present this as to 'How Virginia Won' is a little wishful IMO. Virginia did nothing other than happen to be the place where other companies are doing business.
- currymj 7y agodon't forget proximity to the Bezos residence; Crystal City is about a 15 minute drive away.
- jcranmer 7y agoVirginia won because it scored well on everything but cost of living. I think it's quite likely that the criteria was essentially selected with NoVA in mind.
- linuxftw 7y agoYeah, I think the criteria was "We're building in NoVA unless someone gives us a deal we literally can't refuse." NYC tried that, but there was citizen outrage (apparently).
- ceejayoz 7y agoWell, and they're still expanding in NYC anyways.
- sonnyblarney 7y agoThe #1 criteria is DC. The government is 25% of the economy, and it's just starting in the cloud. The amount of money the US Gov. is going to spend on AWS will be jaw dropping. It will trickle down into states, cities, and other governments like Canada. And of course the deeply entrenched lobbying power.