Nashville Councilwoman Calls Amazon's Withdrawal from New York 'Disheartening'
*By Kristen Lee*
A Nashville councilwoman called Amazon's abrupt cancelation of its plan to build a campus in New York City "disheartening" on Thursday, saying it sends a negative signal about the company's willingness to work with local officials.
"It seems like the politicians up there and the local elected officials started asking tough questions, and that's what elected officials are supposed to do ー we're supposed to be stewards of the taxpayer dollars," Councilwoman Kathleen Murphy told Cheddar. "If we ask questions, are they just going to run away?"
Nashville was chosen as the site of a smaller Amazon outpost that will create 5,000 jobs for the city at the same time the e-commerce giant announced its larger "HQ2" campuses in Queens, New York, and suburban Virginia.
Murphy, who has been critical of some of the incentives Nashville is providing Amazon, said debate is important. "We need to have open and transparent conversations so our constituents know what is going on and we know that we're doing what's best for Nashville."
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Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
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