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This is all conjecture, but I think the storage economics work: they just don’t have enough used-TB yet. Like if they charge $4/TB/m, and pay SNOs ($1.5/TB/m x 64/29 (expansion) =~ $3.30/TB/m. That means for every paid used-TB, they keep around $0.70. Maybe say $0.80/TB with average egress and segment fees added… but still ignoring higher profits from stuff like Select. Sound like a reasonable guess?
Then if customers are paying for about 31.5PB… that is 31500TB x $0.80/TB/m = $25200 USD/month
That would pay for… maybe two full-time employees w/benefits, Satellite hosting costs, and other minimum business expenses?
That’s what I mean by profitable-on-paper: they may just need 10x the used-space to make the numbers work.
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