For technology companies, research and development costs directly reflect the overall strength to a certain extent, Apple, Huawei are so.

After lampooning Apple last week for the lack of innovation in its iPhone replacement, Musk again took aim at the company on Monday, lampooning that its heavy research and development spending has produced few notable results.

"New numbers show Apple spent a record $26.25 billion on R&D in 2022, up about $4 billion from 2021," one X user posted, along with a photo showing the iPhone 15 weighing a gram less than the 14, which appears to be the only difference between the two.

Mr Musk responded: "Value for money seems low." This is an irony that Apple's research and development investment is not proportional to the return.

In contrast, Huawei's published results show that in 2022, the R&D investment reached 161.5 billion yuan, accounting for 25.1% of the annual revenue, and the cumulative R&D investment in the decade exceeded 977.3 billion yuan.

In this case, the Mate 60 series they launched has attracted foreign attention, and many investment banks and insiders have bluntly said that such a strong R&D cost has brought technical blockade and breakthrough, and the results are more prominent compared with Apple.