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I just can't see it going to any city in Texas for 2 reasons:
1. Greg Abbott
2. Dan 'Douchebag' Patrick
Texas is third only to Washington state and California in Amazon employment and far ahead of any oher states. Tim Cook of Apple is gay but that didn't keep him from opening a big hub in Austin. If Abbot and Pitiful Dan were the problem then why would Amazon buy Whole foods based in Austin? They have 7 warehouses alone in DFW, built THREE warehouses near me in D/FW in the past 5 years, two in the past 18 months.
What some people on this thread are either confused or unaware about is how massive of an undertaking it will be to establish a logistics network to rival UPS and FedEx.
HQ2 will likely facilitate the company’s lion’s share of executive level engineers & other tech and logistics experts who will oversee Amazon’s network of package hubs, fulfillment centers and other supply chain related facilities.
Yet and still Amazon just announced this week they are starting their own shipping group.
It reminds of "back in the day" when everyone thought Google (now Alphabet) was just a search engine!
And Google had no problem with people believing that they were "just a search engine", wink ,wink, nudge, nudge (and some people out there probably still believe that to this day and it's 2018)! And Google turns into this tech behemoth from the day they were born.
Same with Amazon, Bezos probably wants people to believe they are "just an online retailer" selling stuff, when they are so much more, especially on the cloud side.
There was just a story on CBS Sunday Morning last October about Amazon Web Services (AWS) and showing where Amazon is making its most money, the cloud. A good majority of their cloud servers are spread throughout NOVA in non-discrete warehouse buildings with security like Ft. Knox. Data is the new gold.
But even Professor Hu admits that the Cloud is here to stay. Amazon's AWS is on track to make $16 billion this year, dwarfing the part of Amazon that most people know, the part that sells books and things.
AWS is growing at 40 percent a year, and Loudoun County can't build data centers fast enough. Buddy Rizer says that seven new ones are under construction right now. A new RagingWire data center will add another two million square feet of data center space.
Dallas Fort Worth is a better logistics hub than Atlanta:
ATL - one airport; Dallas -3, including Ross Perot Jr.s Alliance Air Cargo Only airport; Also, D/FW has both American Airlines and Southwest Air headquartered there.
Rail - LA/Long Beach seaport, busiest in North America has a direct rail line/terminus in Fort Worth. D/FW has a very large intermodal inland seaport owned by the Allen Brothers (California based). Also, Burlington-Northern-Sante-Fe Railway is based in Fort Worth (owned by Warren Buffet)
Highways -
Atlanta - I 20 and I -75 and I 85 and one beltway bypass
Dallas has four interstate highways passing through - I-20, I-30, I-45, I-35E and I-35W - I-35 is the NAFTA highway from Mexico to Canada. Dallas has two beltway bypasses and more highway lanes by far than Atlanta.
Sea port - Dallas is closer to a major open see port city than Atlanta, four hours south is Houston, the second busiest port by tonnage in north America. Closest to Atlanta is Jacksonville or Mobile Bay, combined they handle far less cargo than Houston.
Lets not forget what drives logistics - ENERGY. No other state comes close on a combined basis. You got oil, natural gas, solar and the more Wind Farms than any place in north America. Bezos was in Texas in November, celebrating the opening of his largest Wind farm.
Atlanta can play the rail game as well. Atlanta has the Port of Savannah and Charleston nearby. Atlanta also has logistics talent from UPS.
Austin's biggest issue is that its still in high growth mode. They moved to a new airport about 15 years ago which is still adding connections. Its not in general big intermodal hub (warehouses, train traffic, trucks, air) as is Dallas/FW or Atlanta or Chicago. BUT it has lots of Tech people, is home to Whole Foods and is along the NAFTA (I-35) highway. In terms of lifestyle, Austin a high value place. Very attractive city, and not more than 3 hours from Houston, San Antonio or Dallas.
I like the hill country around Austin. The airport will never be robust as Houston and Dallas are around. I think it did pass San Antonio's airport though
Dallas Fort Worth is a better logistics hub than Atlanta:
ATL - one airport; Dallas -3, including Ross Perot Jr.s Alliance Air Cargo Only airport; Also, D/FW has both American Airlines and Southwest Air headquartered there.
Rail - LA/Long Beach seaport, busiest in North America has a direct rail line/terminus in Fort Worth. D/FW has a very large intermodal inland seaport owned by the Allen Brothers (California based). Also, Burlington-Northern-Sante-Fe Railway is based in Fort Worth (owned by Warren Buffet)
Highways -
Atlanta - I 20 and I -75 and I 85 and one beltway bypass
Dallas has four interstate highways passing through - I-20, I-30, I-45, I-35E and I-35W - I-35 is the NAFTA highway from Mexico to Canada. Dallas has two beltway bypasses and more highway lanes by far than Atlanta.
Sea port - Dallas is closer to a major open see port city than Atlanta, four hours south is Houston, the second busiest port by tonnage in north America. Closest to Atlanta is Jacksonville or Mobile Bay, combined they handle far less cargo than Houston.
Lets not forget what drives logistics - ENERGY. No other state comes close on a combined basis. You got oil, natural gas, solar and the more Wind Farms than any place in north America. Bezos was in Texas in November, celebrating the opening of his largest Wind farm.
You may be placing too much importance on the heavy iron aspects of logistics as it relates to HQ2's potential location. There's little pertinence that HQ2 be close to cargo rail, ports, cargo airports etc.. It's not going to be a package hub. Amazon Air's main air freight facility is already in Covington, KY with fulfillment centers spread throughout the U.S.
HQ2 will likely house many of Amazon's brain trust who will develop and oversee Bezo's Nextgen plans for automation in the supply chain industry. I'm guessing key traits for the desired city be an ample supply of available tech and logistics talent, a research university system that acts as a talent mill and a hub airport with extensive connections.
Dallas and Atlanta match up well in most aspects you've mentioned. However, Dallas has absolutely no answer for Georgia Tech and Tech Square in Atlanta.
Georgia Tech offers a huge advantage because there is extensive study and work being done with robotics and artificial intelligence. Those two fields are key for Bezos' vision to ultimately have an almost fully automated package distribution system using drones and robotics.
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