Amazon never used government $ for it. 20% of Tesla’s revenue comes directly from taxpayers.
"Not to mention for every Amazon, there have been 200+ tech startups with negative cash flow that went belly-up.
Like it or not, the US gov't has ALWAYS subsidized projects that were felt to be of benefit to the nation, starting with Lewis and Clark, through the railroads, thru commercial aviation, and on and on.
Some win, some lose. Libertarian purists get their knickers in a knot about it, but it "does" work. To the point that EVERY federal agency that funds R&D must reserve a percentage of their budget (I think 10%) devoted to pure "blue sky" research projects. The benefit of the "wins" has, historically, far outweighed the cost of the "loses".