Well: with the exception of Q1 2020 they were profitable from 2017 until Musk bought the company. Their last year was lower due to a lawsuit settlement but they were making significant profits until his acquisition added huge debt service obligations and tanked revenue.
Yes, like a lot of tech companies they weren’t focused on profits until their CEO prioritized it over growth but from that point on they were profitable from 2018 on, with the aforementioned bad quarter when everyone cut spending at the start of the pandemic. The one-time deferred lawsuit payout in 2021 masked what otherwise would have been several hundreds of millions in profit.
The problem people had understanding them was that they weren’t Facebook or Google. The expectations of a money-printing machine were unrealistic but they had a solid middle-tier business with a large number of solid customers.
