If you can read the entire boring thing, the original poster comes around at the end and basically gets it. What seems to confuse bears and accountants apparently, is that cap ex is an investment that pays dividends. It's only cash burn if you have no demand for the products you're are ramping up cap ex to make. The OP babbles on about how model 3 will generate massive cash but cap ex will continue to grow because of China factory, model y and semi/roadster lines. What is missing from this thought is that each subsequent factory or model will be accelerate which means cash from those new lines will come in months quicker because they will largely be duplicates of existing successful production lines. Each line will have only incremental improvements or tweaks for model Y. Roadster and semi are not going to be huge cap ex because they will be much lower volume so they won't be hyper robotic like model 3/Y and future platforms.
The other missing piece is that the highly automated nature of the model 3 leads to lower op ex, which improves operating margins. It also leads to short production times which allows Tesla to pay for parts after the cars are delivered and payments received which will have a dramatic effect on cash flow.
A successful model 3 ramp is a game changer because the ramp to 2 million cars per year or more that follows will be based on duplication and tweaks not inventing a new way to produce vehicles. Same goes for batteries and packs. All the cars should be based on the same sub models, including semi and roadster. The minute Tesla his 10k/week, they should be ordering new equipment for the next several plants. A gigafactory is just a gigantic building with the right equipment placed in the right location. Raw materials in one side and cars and powerpacks and solar products out the other end.
I am sure a laptop would have worked
