Uber reported its first quarterly profit ever this week. Here's a look at how it got there.

• Uber reported its first quarterly operating profit ever this week.
• Here's a chart showing the ride-hailing giant's path to profitability.

Uber reported its first quarterly operating profit this week, a major milestone for the ride-share operator. Here's a chart showing the company's path to profitability:

The transportation titan has lost more than $22 billion in total since the start of 2018, a Markets Insider analysis of Securities and Exchange Commission filings shows. Its quarterly operating losses peaked at $5.5 billion in the second quarter of 2019, but haven't exceeded $1 billion in the last eight quarters.

Uber, led by CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, has focused on scaling its business, growing its top line, and becoming profitable in recent years. Indeed, its quarterly revenue has ballooned from under $3 billion throughout 2018, to north of $9 billion last quarter.

The strong growth and narrowing losses have improved sentiment toward the stock. The ride-hailing giant's shares have soared 90% this year, but still remain well below the peak price they reached in the spring of 2021.

Investors have piled into growth stocks like Uber this year, as they expect advances in artificial intelligence to boost companies' profits and enable technologies like self-driving cars. Tech stocks have also been buoyed by inflation falling from as high as 9.1% last summer to 3% in June, which has paved the way for the Federal Reserve to stop hiking interest rates and start cutting them instead.