7 Numbers That Explain Amazon's Big HQ News

Amazon on Thursday announced plans for HQ2, a second headquarters to be built in North America as "a full equal to our Seattle headquarters," said Jeff Bezos in a statement. The company has invited interested host cities to submit a proposal, with the application saying the final site selection and announcement will come in 2018. What Amazon is saying about its plans, as told via seven numbers:

1. 50,000: the potential number of "high-paying jobs" that will be created "over the next 10 to 15 years."
2. 1 million: Amazon's preference for minimum city size for HQ2.
3. 45: approximate number of minutes the chosen site needs to be from an international airport.
4. 8 million: number of square feet HQ2 could ultimately clock in at.
5. $5 billion: the expected construction cost.
6. $38 billion: Amazon's estimate of how much additional money Seattle reaped from 2010 through 2016 due to having its HQ there.
7. 233,000: A number that gives more context to the previous one—in 2016, "Amazonians" and guests booked this many hotel rooms in Seattle.

(More Amazon stories.)