>make revenue from that $20 than the electricity and server costs needed to serve that customer

Seems like a pretty dumb take. It’s like saying it only takes $X in electricity and raw materials to produce a widget that I sell for $Y. Since $Y is bigger than $X, I’m making money! Just ignore that I have to pay people to work the lines. Ignore that I had to pay huge amounts to build the factory. Ignore every other cost.

They can’t just fire everyone and stop training new models.

As I understand it:

Gross profit = revenues - cost of goods sold

Operating profit = Gross profit - operating expenses including depreciation & amortisation

Net profit = Operating profit - net interest expense - taxes

See comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47057874