There is a secret sauce: pairing a company (Amazon.com) with heavy net operating losses (NoLs) with a very profitable company (AWS).
The result? Amazon pays zero taxes and can continually expand. The NoLs offset the profits, and every time Amazon has a division that becomes profitable they offset it by entering a promising but loss-inducing new sector. Then, when that division becomes profitable - rinse and repeat.
This is Bezos’ genius.
Re:Ask HN: Are we in tech-stock bubble?
by voodootrucker on Sunday December 27, 2020 @08:52PM
(#25555991)
> This is Bezos’ genius.
His genius is gaming a readily game-able tax system for personal gain and public loss?
I do agree it's what he's good at, but I disagree about it being "genius" and question whether it's worthy of praise.
Concurred.
Re:Ask HN: Are we in tech-stock bubble?
by thewarrior on Sunday December 27, 2020 @08:46PM
(#25555966)
Are taxes such a serious constraint on company growth when funding is so easily available ?
Hm. Not sure, that’s an excellent point. It may not be a constraint, but I think it is a massive incentive.
Re:Ask HN: Are we in tech-stock bubble?
by jungturk on Sunday December 27, 2020 @08:59PM
(#25556026)
ARK put out a prospectus that details where they feel Tesla's revenue may come from. Scroll down a page or two and you'll see the tables they're using.
https://ark-invest.com/articles/analyst-research/tesla-price...
Wow, they give Tesla a 30% chance of launching a fully autonomous taxi network for revenue in 2021. That seems wildly optimistic.
But I think there's often some hidden game going on with tech companies that go well beyond selling more sugar water and expanding overseas to places that haven't seen sugar water before.
Amazon is the best at this... using one business to launch a second.
So what I'd look for with TSLA is not whether cars can ever justify this price, but whether there is an adjacent business that is actually bigger than cars. Is there? I have no idea.