Amazon CEO says 'HQ2' decision will be announced before end of year

REUTERS - Amazon.com Inc chief executive Jeff Bezos said on Thursday (September 13) that the company would announce a decision on where it would build a second headquarters before the end of the year. Amazon previously announced 20 finalists in North America for its planned investment of $5 billion and 50,000 jobs. At a speech before the Economic Club of Washington on Thursday, Bezos did not offer any favorites for the project. Bezos, the world's richest person also said he will commit $2 billion to helping homeless families and starting pre-schools for low-income communities. The announcement marks a deeper foray into philanthropy for Bezos, whose fortune has soared to more than $160 billion thanks to his stake in Amazon. Dominance in e-commerce and the nascent field of cloud computing has made Amazon the world's second-most valuable public company.