> This just simply isn't true. Losing the money means they spent it and got nothing for it. But every penny they spend, they get a lot of things - battery technology, market share, mindshare, network effect lockins (superchargers), etc. Tesla isn't losing its money, its investing it.

Yes, and such things are reflected in their balance sheet under "Assets" and "Goodwill". The problem with Tesla is that after accounting for their "Assets" and "Goodwill", they're still negative.

Tesla says its "Goodwill" is worth $461,989,000 in 2016 for example. See its 2017 10k if you don't believe me (its in "thousands", so search for 461,989). http://ir.tesla.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=1564590-17-3118&C...

The rest of Tesla's assets, which include every factory, every bit of cash, every investment... was estimated to be $ 692,925,000.

That is, Tesla believes itself to be a $1 Billion company, but roughly half of its valuation is "Goodwill" and brand recognition.

Believe it or not, Wall Street has names for the things you've described. Its all part of the calculation.

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Anyway, after accounting for all of that, Tesla is still losing money, quarter after quarter, year after year.