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by mattlondon 1207 days ago
"negative gross profit" ... that is corpspeak for "loss" right?

I guess don't say "The L-word" is some attempt to paint a rosy picture? "This is not use losing money! We're making a negativeprofit by investing!"

4 comments

No, it means that the column for gross profit is negative. Loss is used many times in different columns on the consolidated balance sheet.
You are incorrect. 'Loss' is a perfectly acceptable GAAP term for negative profits on the P&L, it's just that 'Gross Loss' is so rare, nobody really uses it.

You can even look at the 10-k and see they say 'Net Loss' instead of 'Net Income.'

>"negative gross profit" ... that is corpspeak for "loss" right?

Negative gross profit means they are selling the cars for less than it costs to make them, which is like 'mega-loss.'

It's one thing to make $5k per truck, but then spend a lot on advertising to get the word out (eventually the word is out and you can slow down advertising/spread it across more sales).

It's another thing to lose $5k per truck and still have to spend money on advertising it.

EDIT: To be fair, this is because Rivian built big/expensive factories and still only makes a small amount of cars in those factories. A big question will be their ability to actually use those factories to their full potential.

This is just GAAP, right?

If you know what Gross Profit is - negative Gross Profit is a fine concept. Why have a separate line item & term for positive and negative?

If you look on their 10-Q/K's, Rivian refers to 'Net Loss' instead of 'Net Income.'

The line items can be changed in that way and it still qualifies for GAAP.

Maybe they’re trying to trick the automated trading algorithms that buy and sell shares based on sentiment analysis. Negative gross profit sounds vaguely like a good thing at a glance