Tesla bull Cathie Wood said the EV leader's top rivals are Google's Waymo and GM's Cruise

• Ark Invest's Cathie Wood said Waymo and Cruise are the top competitors to Tesla.
• In a Tuesday forum, she said the two have demonstrated the most advanced autonomous tech.
• Even so, Tesla is at least three years ahead of all its competitors, she added.

Star stockpicker Cathie Wood said two companies may be catching up to Tesla: Alphabet's Waymo and GM's Cruise.

Wood, who is the founder and chief executive officer of Ark Invest, answered questions from retail traders in a Tuesday forum on the Public trading app. One person asked who she thinks is the "biggest competitor to Tesla."

"We believe Cruise and Waymo have demonstrated the most advanced autonomous technology on public roads," Wood replied.

But both self-driving companies have fewer cars in their fleets to collect data from, while Tesla has a critical "data advantage," she added.

Wood is well-known for her bullish stance on Elon Musk's Tesla, and in 2021 set a five-year price target of $3,000 a share. Shares soared roughly 50% last year, but has lost about half those gains amid the market rout in the new year and was at $920.23 on Tuesday.

Despite some sales, Tesla stock remains the top holding in several of Ark Invest's funds, including flagship fund the Ark Innovation ETF.

Waymo, which came from a project within Alphabet's Google more than a decade ago, has ramped up testing in California along with the the number of miles driven in recent years, Insider reported previously. While Waymo's valuation has been disputed in the past, The Financial Times estimated the business' worth at about $30 billion in 2020.

As for Cruise, it's also increased testing in San Francisco, and scored an approximate $30 billion valuation in early 2021 after a fund-raising round. The self-driving startup was purchased by GM in 2016 and is backed by investors like Microsoft and Softbank.

Though Waymo and Cruise are the two top competitors to Tesla's leadership, Wood said they are still far behind.

"From an EV perspective, we believe Tesla's capabilities are at least three years ahead of all competitors," she wrote in the forum, liked by about 10,000 people on Public.

Ark Invest was selling Tesla stock for months until the market rout in January gave the firm an opportunity to buy on the dip. In the Public forum, Wood said Tesla remains one of Ark's "highest conviction names."

"Any trimming of the name in our portfolios relates to broader portfolio management, as opposed to a loss in conviction," she said.