US leads record rise in spending on nuclear arsenals, campaign group says
Global spending on nuclear weapons jumped 19% in 2025 to a record $119 billion, with the U.S. accounting for the biggest share.
Intelligence analysis by GPT-5.4 Mini
A campaign group says the nine nuclear-armed states spent a record $119 billion on nuclear weapons in 2025. The U.S. led the increase, spending $69.2 billion, more than all the others combined.
A report says the world’s nuclear-weapon countries spent a record amount of money last year, like several kids all racing to build bigger and bigger forts. The U.S. spent the most by far, and the bill kept climbing.
Analysis
Record spending
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons said spending on nuclear weapons rose by 19% in 2025, reaching $119 billion across the nine nuclear-armed states it tracks: the U.S., Russia, China, France, Britain, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel. The group said this was the highest annual total since it began tracking the figures in 2020.
The U.S. surge
The U.S. remained by far the biggest spender, putting $69.2 billion into nuclear weapons. That was more than the combined spending of all the other nuclear states, and it represented the largest year-on-year increase at 22%. ICAN said the U.S. is increasing military spending broadly while also rebuilding its nuclear arsenal.
Other major spenders
China was second, increasing its spending by 7% to $13.5 billion. Britain moved ahead of Russia to become the third-largest spender, with spending up 17% to $12.6 billion. Russia spent $9.5 billion, up 6% from the previous year.
The report comes from ICAN, the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, which campaigns for the total elimination of nuclear weapons. The article does not give detailed country-by-country explanations beyond the headline spending figures, but it clearly points to a steep upward trend in nuclear budgets across the nuclear-armed states.
Key points
- ICAN says the nine nuclear-armed states spent a record $119 billion on nuclear weapons in 2025.
- Total spending rose 19% from 2024, the biggest annual amount the group has tracked since 2020.
- The U.S. spent $69.2 billion, more than all other nuclear states combined, and had the largest increase at 22%.
- China spent $13.5 billion, Britain spent $12.6 billion, and Russia spent $9.5 billion.
- The report is relevant to Middle East security because Israel is one of the nuclear-armed states included in the tally.
If these spending trends continue, nuclear-armed states could keep expanding and modernizing their arsenals instead of slowing down. That could deepen mistrust and make arms competition harder to reverse, including in a region where Israel is already part of the nuclear balance.
