arms race

American  

noun

1. competition between countries to achieve superiority in quantity and quality of military arms.

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arms race British  

noun

1. the continuing competitive attempt by two or more nations each to have available to it more and more powerful weapons than the other(s)

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Etymology

Origin of arms race

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

The global AI arms race continued to heat up with Meta’s latest acquisition.

From The Wall Street Journal

And an artificial-intelligence arms race has triggered a capital-spending boom of epic proportions, propelling growth, minting millionaires—and leaving the U.S. stock market even more top-heavy than before.

From The Wall Street Journal

Spending caps function less as austerity than as coordination devices, preventing signaling arms races that drive up costs without improving welfare.

From The Wall Street Journal

The technology arms race between the U.S. and China, they added, “will likely create structural winners” in China—particularly in certain niches.

From Barron's

The corporate arms race for dominance in artificial intelligence is on.

From The Wall Street Journal