[gabesullice]

I think what you're missing is that lenders don't lend blindly. They expect to be paid back. Just as an investor expects to recoup their investment. Buying a bond (i.e. a loan to a company) is as much of an investment strategy as buying a share. Bonds come with less risk and limited reward, shares the opposite.

From the company's perspective, it has a queue of claimants who expect to be paid and the company will pay them with its profits. The queue order is roughly determined by whether the claimant holds a bond or a share (and further determined by legalities and complications within those two broad classifications. It's complicated™).

If you could walk up to anyone in the queue and ask to take their place in line, in exchange for cash, "enterprise value" is an estimate of how much it would cost to buy everyone's place in line. Or, the sum of how much everyone in line values their place in that line.

Thus, in this metaphor, Toyota could decide to sell new places in line to finance the construction of a $1T factory. But, only if people believe the factory will actually produce > $1T in new value.