That article is completely different from the little I know of accounting. Operating profit/loss is in relation to operating expenses, not capital expenses. T

That article is completely different from the little I know of accounting. Operating profit/loss is in relation to operating expenses, not capital expenses. The article cites a lot of capital expenses as dragging down operating profit which makes little sense. Operating profit/loss is revenue minus operating expenses. Net profit/loss takes into account the capital expenses. http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/112814/whats-difference-between-capital-expenditures-capex-and-operational-expenditures-opex.asp http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/112814/whats-differe... If the article you linked were credible, Tesla "lost" $47M as an operating loss, but had $831M in capex in the first half so they were clearly profitable when you add that back in. But what measure would that be? Operating profit/loss should already have the capex taken out of it, right? Yes, it's important to note that Tesla is starting up and has a lot of capex. But capital expenses shouldn't be in the operating loss. http://www.diffen.com/difference/Capex_vs_Opex http://www.diffen.com/difference/Capex_vs_Opex