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
These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Companies invested heavily in building out proprietary Unix systems in a similar compute performance arms race to today’s AI arms race. Liam Collins, Forbes, 3 Oct. 2024 Nvidia is still the only game in town for companies spending hundreds of billions in the AI arms race—and both the firm’s customers and investors are well aware of that. Greg McKenna, Fortune, 3 Oct. 2024 When Microsoft launched Copilot, then called Bing, early last year, it was seen as a leader among its big tech peers in the AI arms race. Clare Duffy, CNN, 1 Oct. 2024 Gill considers this moment as our narrow shot to avoid another Cold War-style arms race with AI. Tharin Pillay, TIME, 5 Sep. 2024 See all Example Sentences for arms race 

Word History

First Known Use

1921, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of arms race was in 1921

Dictionary Entries Near arms race

Cite this Entry

“Arms race.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/arms%20race. Accessed 8 Nov. 2024.

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