That doesn't mean that lack of funing was the problem.
If the company leadership can't find a way to get a return on the money, why not take it somewhere else?
Intel investors sell and become Nvidia investors.
It seems like people have the blind assumption RnD investment always has profitable returns and is the limiting factor.
There are real institutional differences and limitations to what money can do.
You can't drop a billion dollars on a turd and come back the next day and collect 2 billion dollars. When a company pays a dividend, it is saying that it can't put that money to better use.
The perspective is the problem here. Looking from the angle of "investor" (ie, someone with capital) twists everything into a horrific hellscape. For example:
Suppose I own you, my slave. I can work you for ten years, collecting the profits off your labour - or I can sell your kidneys, liver, eyes and heart for a large up-front profit. One approach is long-term sustainable, the other is not.
But looking at it this way entirely disregards your perspective on the situation. Perhaps you would like to have a say in some of the decision making? Perhaps the owner's profits aren't the be-all-end-all of things?
You can pretend to have a billion dollars and show great concern about how to turn it into two. Or you can accept that for 99.999% of people this is an exploitative system that destroys everything of true value, in the end leaving the one biggest capitalist with a giant bag of money and nothing left to buy with it.
I dont think it twists it. Even if the owner is the employee, the questions and calculus is the same.
If you work for a completely employee owned coop with a profit, would you reinvest it for less money tomorrow?
You can even take money out of it and talk about goods. IF your coop job runs a profit, would you rather get 2 free hams this year, or choose to wait and instead get 1 free ham next year.
If the company leadership can't find a way to get a return on the money, why not take it somewhere else?
Intel investors sell and become Nvidia investors.
It seems like people have the blind assumption RnD investment always has profitable returns and is the limiting factor.
There are real institutional differences and limitations to what money can do.
You can't drop a billion dollars on a turd and come back the next day and collect 2 billion dollars. When a company pays a dividend, it is saying that it can't put that money to better use.