New York (CNN) New York City may be on the Amazon HQ2 shortlist, but CEO Jeff Bezos wasn't in town to make any major announcements.

The Amazon ( AMZN ) founder was interviewed by journalist and historian Walter Isaacson at an event Thursday hosted by FIRST, a global nonprofit that aims to get young people interested in science and technology through robotics.

During the nearly 45-minute conversation on-stage, Bezos addressed the search for a city to build out its second headquarters — a new facility that is expected to create 50,000 jobs and cost $5 billion.

"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 Isaacson.

Amazon received 238 proposals, selected 20 finalists in January, and plans to announce the winning city by end of this year.