The City of Chicago plans to join the bid after Amazon, an online retailer store, announced the decision to open its second headquarters in a North American metropolitan area Thursday.

By doing so, Chicago also aims at the 50,000 jobs the headquarters will offer.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has more than once talked with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos about the opportunity, Crain's, a weekly business newspaper in Chicago, quoted a source close to City Hall as saying.

"We expect HQ2 to be a full equal to our Seattle headquarters," said Bezos in a news release. "Amazon HQ2 will bring billions of dollars in up-front and ongoing investments, and tens of thousands of high-paying jobs."

When choosing the location for its second headquarters, Amazon prefers "a stable and business-friendly environment" and "urban or suburban locations with the potential to attract and retain strong technical talent," the news release said.

In July this year, Amazon has doubled the size as well as the work force in its Chicago office.

It is estimated that Amazon headquarters in Seattle has contributed 38 billion dollars to the city's economy from 2010 to 2016.