What does it mean when a company “burns through money”? Where does the money go?

Question

I read [this article](https://kotaku.com/facebook-metaverse-vr-2022-billions-13-billion-quest-2-1850062517) this morning about how ~~Facebook~~ Meta’s VR division “Lost $13.72 Billion In 2022”. The article later says that Meta is burning through money. But if they’re spending money to generate a product, doesn’t that money go somewhere? If Meta doesn’t have the $14 billion, who does?

In: 0

Answer 1

There’s spending money to make money and there’s “losing” money

Let’s say i own a grocery store. Let’s say 1 month I spend 20,000 on buying coca cola to sell in my store. I’m probably gonna make more than the 20k I spent back because coke tends to sell well so that’s just “spending money”

But let’s say I spend 20k buying “Vladimirs ultra short shelf life caviar soda” and I sell like none of it (because ew) and so I end up throwing it out, that’s “burning money”