The problem with this is it's too obviously plausible. We no longer want companies that are profitable, we want companies that are potentially profitable in th

The problem with this is it's too obviously plausible. We no longer want companies that are profitable, we want companies that are potentially profitable in the future. That way our Round C investment will increase in value by the time we find suckers... er... mature investors to let us cash out at Round D. The moment we start making actual money and stop valuing the company on projected future growth, it's harder to make up stories about why we should be valued at 100x or even 50x revenues (or in the case of some fabless semiconductor firms I've worked for, 10000x revenues.) Actual earnings are anathema to modern ventures. Any company new enough to build out electric infrastructure would have to forestall revenue events far enough out into the future they would likely hit an economic contraction and would have to be agile enough to move from a "spending money" firm to a "creating value that can be monetized via sales" firm. And that is not easy.