Jeff Bezos says Amazon's HQ2 to be decided based on this

After more than 230 proposals and a full year of collecting data and researching finalists, Amazon’s chief, Jeff Bezos, said when it comes down to decision time, he will follow his “heart.”

"Ultimately the decision will be made with intuition after gathering and studying a lot of data — for a decision like that, as far as I know, the best way to make it is you collect as much data as you can, you immerse yourself in that data but then you make the decision with your heart,” Bezos told journalist Walter Isaacson at an event Thursday.

Bezos and his team have been aggressively researching which one of the 20 finalists, which were announced in January, would be the best fit for the company’s second headquarters. Amazon said the winning city will be announced by the end of this year.

Despite trying to keep details of which cities the company is ultimately eyeing under wraps, many reports in recent weeks have narrowed it down to five cities.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon executives have visited New York City, Newark, New Jersey, and Chicago over the past couple months. Additionally, the company has been following up with other locations, including Miami and the Washington, D.C., area, all five of which are among the 20 finalists for its $5 billion second-headquarters project.

However, other cities, like Raleigh, N.C., haven’t heard from the e-commerce giant in months, notes the Journal.

Last month, Bezos told a sold-out crowd at the Economic Club of Washington that his team has made tremendous progress in its year-long hunt for a second headquarters and they will announce the decision before the end of the year.

“The team's working their butts off on it and we will get there,” Bezos said.

While an Amazon spokesperson did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request for comment on the report, there has been a lot of buzz surrounding Chicago as a top contender.

In August, the Chicago Tribune reported that representatives for the company made a second visit to the Windy City to check out a new 62-acre-development site called The 78.

However, last month news that Amazon joined the D.C. Chamber of Commerce fueled speculation that the company could be narrowing in on that area.

Indeed, earlier this month the New York Times reported that many analysts believe that Northern Virginia checks the most boxes when it comes to the ideal spot. It noted that the area is already home to Amazon’s cloud computing division and, to top it off, Bezos already owns a massive mansion in the area and the biggest newspaper — The Washington Post.

Still, sources told the Journal that no final decision has been made and the company is still in negotiations with several cities.