Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted a post on Tuesday, implicitly expressing dissatisfaction with Apple being named the most innovative company in 2023, while Tesla ranked second. According to a chart shared by Tesla investor "ray4tesla", among the top 13 most innovative companies in 2023 released by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the top six are all American companies, in order: Apple, Tesla, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Moderna.
South Korea's Samsung Electronics ranks seventh on the list, followed by Huawei and BYD, and Siemens ranks tenth. Musk’s rocket launch company SpaceX ranked 13th.
Note: BCG’s list was actually announced in September this year.
“It’s surprising that [my company] ranks so high despite not using BCG,” Musk commented sarcastically. What he meant was that Tesla achieved innovation without the help of strategic management consultants, which seemed to allude to other companies on the list that had dealings with BCG, suggesting a potential conflict of interest.
While Musk didn't compare Apple to Apple, his fans did. X user "WholeMarsCatalog" quipped: "In 2023, Tesla launched the Cybertruck with wire-steering, 48V, and 4680 structure packages, put Dojo into production, and developed end-to-end FSD and a new Optimus design... Apple's biggest innovation this year is the cancellation of the mute switch. I am a big fan of both."
Another user added: "Don't forget Apple's biggest innovation - USB-C, the specification was finalized in August 2014... ten years ago... Android manufacturers started integrating in 2015."