arms race

noun

: a race between hostile nations to accumulate or develop weapons

broadly : an ever escalating race or competition

Examples of arms race in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Google released its own agentic AI product last week, and other technology companies in the AI arms race — like Meta, Microsoft, Amazon and Anthropic — are reportedly developing their own versions. —Megan Sauer, CNBC, 13 Feb. 2025

With China and the U.S. in an AI arms race, Washington is also clashing with Europe. —Thomas Adamson and Aamer Madhani, Los Angeles Times, 11 Feb. 2025

Now If Yours Is On This List Rising polarization has turned politics into an exclusively zero-sum game where coexistence with diverse ideas has been replaced with an arms race to the extremes. —Manu Meel, Forbes, 21 Jan. 2025

But if current trends continue, including the Chinese buildup and a more aggressive Russian nuclear posture, the political momentum for a new arms race will grow, and the new administration seems far less likely to try to resist it. —Joshua Keating, Vox, 15 Jan. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1921, in the meaning defined above