First off - Tesla is profitable or approaching profitability as of this year, per my link earlier. I figured maybe you didn't see that since you didn't address it.
Second, the money that they get from the government is a loan, just like the government, particularly the Dept of Energy, gives to thousands of companies who's research/products have a chance of generating extremely positive externalities for the country. (Last I knew, the whole dependent on foreign oil thing is sort of a big deal)
So what are you against here? What differentiates Tesla from the rest of those companies? If a company had a promising approach towards cold fusion, would you be against a government loan to them as well?
Your statement about VCs needs a citation. Maybe they think the IPO will raise more money for less equity. Maybe they want to do the IPO for other reasons.
Given that they just got a big loan, I doubt they're down to their last 9 million. Unless they spent it all in a week.
If you read the articles about them, they want to introduce another car model which will be a much higher volume business, involving a lot of capital expenditure up front to create the plant. That's a good reason to go IPO rather than another venture round. Higher dollars.
And if you don't buy it? Fine, don't buy the stock. But what's your ax to grind here? Every capital intensive business, including a lot of valley darlings, went through a long money-losing period at the beginning while they ramped up design and production. This is standard. Why the long face?
Second, the money that they get from the government is a loan, just like the government, particularly the Dept of Energy, gives to thousands of companies who's research/products have a chance of generating extremely positive externalities for the country. (Last I knew, the whole dependent on foreign oil thing is sort of a big deal)
So what are you against here? What differentiates Tesla from the rest of those companies? If a company had a promising approach towards cold fusion, would you be against a government loan to them as well?