Boston hasn’t been officially selected for Amazon’s HQ2 yet, but that doesn’t mean the tech giant isn’t expanding aggressively in the Hub.
This week, Amazon announced that it’s creating an additional 2,000 technology jobs spanning fields like machine learning, speech science, cloud computing and robotics engineering at its Boston Seaport office.
Coupled with its customer fulfillment facilities, that means Amazon has created more than 3,500 jobs in Massachusetts since 2011 and invested more than $400 million in the state.
“Amazon is excited to create 2,000 more jobs in greater Boston,” said Rohit Prasad, Amazon’s vice president and head scientist of Amazon Alexa, in a statement. “In just a few years, we’ve grown from a handful of software developers and scientists to a team of more than 1,200, inventing new capabilities and products on behalf of millions of customers around the world.”
To accommodate the new employees, Amazon will expand into 430,000 square feet in WS Development’s Seaport project — a 7.6 million square feet development on the waterfront. They expect to open the office’s doors in 2021.
Amazon’s teams based in the Boston area primarily focus on Alexa, Amazon Web Services and Audible. Its Boston-based machine learning scientists and engineers focus on enhancing the experience of customers interacting with Alexa, through cutting-edge research and development on conversational artificial intelligence.
Many Boston leaders have received the news with enthusiasm, including Gov. Charlie Baker and Mayor Marty Walsh, who called the project, “a tremendous vote of confidence in our economy” in a statement issued this week.
“Massachusetts’ innovation economy is powered by a talented workforce, exceptional educational institutions and companies like Amazon at the forefront of research and development,” said Baker in a statement. “Amazon’s expansion in the Seaport will bring thousands of new jobs to the Commonwealth and build upon the hundreds of jobs they already have here in research and development, fulfillment centers and robotics.”
No word yet on whether Boston will be chosen for Amazon's HQ2, though the tech giant has said it will make a decision some time this year.
