Amazon releases shortlist of 20 cities still in the running for HQ2

It's been a few months since the deadline passed to apply for Amazon's second world headquarters -- and all the jobs and economy boosts that come with it -- and the tech behemoth has finally released its shortlist, a group of 20 cities still in the running.

In a blog post, Amazon even took care to publish a map since it's 2018 and many Americans are probably still not entirely sure where Pittsburgh is or if Denver is actually real.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

If you're the type of person who's more into lists, here are the still-eligible cities in that format.

• Atlanta

• Austin

• Boston

• Chicago

• Columbus

• Dallas

• Denver

• Indianapolis

• Los Angeles

• Miami

• Montgomery County, Maryland

• Nashville

• Northern Virginia

• Newark

• New York City

• Philadelphia

• Pittsburgh

• Raleigh

• Toronto

• Washington, D.C.

While some cities are hardly shocking -- New York, Chicago, Denver, Austin -- that doesn't mean the list is without surprises.

Columbus, Ohio, and Indianapolis are two Midwest locations that probably weren't on many peoples' radar. Raleigh, North Carolina, probably wasn't, either, but that's one of the points in the rapidly growing "Research Triangle" region.

And Amazon seems to really like the D.C. area, with Montgomery County, Maryland, D.C. itself, and the generic "Northern Virginia" area all making the cut.

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A few other things to glean here: 10 cities are on the Atlantic Coast -- including Newark, NJ and its humongous, controversial tax cut promise -- while Los Angeles is the only location west of Denver.

It's also worth noting that Amazon only said these cities "proceed to the next step," not that they're finalists. So we may have another round of cuts before the finals in this corporate Hunger Games.

Not much else is really revealed in Amazon's update today but if you're a betting person, you might want to follow along because Paddy Power's top three favorites from their last odds before the shortlist was released include Boston, Atlanta, and Austin.

To the other 218 cities that didn't make the cut, including the three cities we profiled last fall, take heart: Apple is on deck, so keep those RFPs handy.