Capital-Intensive

Capital-intensive

Used to describe industries that require large investments in capital assets to produce their goods, such as the automobile industry. These firms require large profit margins and/or low costs of borrowing to survive.

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Capital Intensive

Describing a company or industry requiring a great deal of capital to maintain operations. For example, the automobile industry is capital-intensive because, in order to make cars, it requires a lot of workers and expensive equipment that must be properly maintained. Another, smaller scale example is a dentist office, which requires expensive equipment and materials. In order to stay afloat, capital intensive companies need either consistently large profits or inexpensive credit.