Next question: how does a company that only nets $5B a year spend $17B a year on content licensing?
The answer is: they borrowed it. Netflix has spent the last decade borrowing like crazy. At the peak, in 2020, they held more than $16 billion in long-term debt.
@Ertain They can always issue more stock! But that dilutes the value of existing stock, which existing shareholders don't like. And potential new shareholders may be wary to buy in if the pitch is "please help us avoid this gigantic iceberg we've spent the last decade steering towards." They may want to see new management before they'd be willing to buy in.