Is it? This was true if Amazon for well over a decade, and look at them now.
If you can meaningfully reinvest into your business rather than show a profit (and pay taxes on it), then you're in a good position. Tesla has the growth that merits doing this, which is why their share price is so high.
> After several years of losses, Tesla has delivered three straight profitable quarters since the third quarter of 2019 and surprised investors with solid first-quarter deliveries despite the virus outbreak.
I think three quarters is probably still too short to declare profitability overall, especially considering there were $1.1bn in total losses the previous two quarters before that (compared to a cumulative $264m in profit the past three). There are just too many games you can play by shifting losses between quarters, and Tesla definitely engages in them (as does every other public company).
You could play the game in reverse, dump the sale of things like ZEV credits in their $702m loss quarter, and end up with 5 consecutive quarters of losses.
However there are rumblings of a potential Q2 2020 profit, which would be four consecutive quarters and in my (bearish for HN) mind take the "Tesla has never been profitable" criticism off the table once and for all.
PS: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jul/01/tesla-bec...