> Profit is money you couldn’t figure out how to spend.

Profit is the money showing your business is sustainable. Ever since the ZIRP era US companies keep haemorrhaging money at a rate that is physically impossible to recoup.

If OpenAI plans to lose 100+ billion dollars per year for half a decade, what profits are you talking about to offset the losses?

> When the company/market matures, you want pure profits because shareholders like money.

Ah yes. Shareholders like money. And not, you know, basic accounting like "we need money to actually pay salaries, pay for equipment and offices etc. without perpetually relying on seeming endless investor money".

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chronc6393 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

> what profits are you talking about to offset the losses?

You don’t need profit to offset the losses.

You can simply reduce spending / expenses.

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CraigRood 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

In principle yes, but all metrics so far suggest they are losing money every user interaction. There is very little network effect with these tools so It's not like they can start cutting back on staff and feature deployment.

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LaGrange 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

lol that’s a line so incredibly naive it hurts.

One does not “simply” reduce spending.

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chronc6393 2 days ago | parent [-]

> One does not “simply” reduce spending.

Why does stock price go up after mass layoffs?

	▲	bumby 2 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		What happens when the only way to reduce spending is to reduce your assets? Seems like circular logic at that point. I suppose the market isn’t expected to be rational all the time, but eventually it is.
	▲	justsomehnguy 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		By your logic any company should just layoff everyone and profit on the stock price going to the infinity. Company would no longer function of course but why it would matters if the stock price is through the Moon?

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Swizec 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> Profit is the money showing your business is sustainable.

Notice I said you should have nominal profits.

> Ah yes. Shareholders like money. And not, you know, basic accounting like "we need money to actually pay salaries, pay for equipment and offices etc. without perpetually relying on seeming endless investor money".

All of these are costs that reduce your profits.

A maximally profitable business fires all employees except shareholders, closes every office, stops all RnD, and leases IP or real estate to others on long-term deals that never need to be renegotiated.