Experts warned Tuesday that as atomic-armed nations transferred additional warheads from storage onto delivery systems, global spending on nuclear weapons reached a record high last year.
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) reports that the nine nuclear-armed states collectively spent around $119 billion on their arsenals last year, a 19 percent increase from 2024."We are facing a new nuclear arms race," the research cautioned.
ICAN expressed concern about the increasing nuclear risk amid escalating geopolitical tensions, as did a different report published on Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

According to the study, nations hastened to upgrade their arsenals and deploy more of their stocks, which resulted in a sharp increase in nuclear weapons costs.
The scale-up was extremely concerning, according to Susi Snyder, ICAN's director of programs and co-author of the most recent study, along with concerns that AI would make the use of nuclear weapons more likely.I'm scared, to tell the truth," she told AFP.The risks are increasing.
According to SIPRI's report, the total estimated number of nuclear warheads had been decreasing for decades, reaching 12,187 at the beginning of this year. However, the report cautioned that the number of weapons that could be used had increased to 9,745.

"The level of nuclear dangers and nuclear risks is rising, even though we have fewer nuclear weapons," Karim Haggag, head of SIPRI, told AFP.
He cited concerning indicators, such as the disintegration of strategic weapons control and the rivalry between nuclear-armed superpowers.
Overall nuclear weapons stockpiles are expected to start increasing once more in the upcoming years "as the pace of dismantlement is slowing, while the deployment of new nuclear weapons is accelerating," according to SIPRI.
With more than 5,000 warheads apiece, the United States and Russia collectively own almost 83% of the global nuclear weapons arsenal. According to SIPRI, China is building up its nuclear arsenal more quickly than any other nation, with an estimated 620 warheads."Intensifying geopolitical competition means a very strong incentive on the part of China to increase its reliance on nuclear weapons," Haggag stated.
All nuclear-armed nations, including Britain, France, India, Israel, North Korea, and Pakistan, were investing more in their arsenals, according to ICAN's assessment.
Together, the nine nations spent around $17 billion more on WMDs last year than they did in 2024.
According to ICAN, Washington spent $69.2 billion on nuclear weapons in 2025—an increase of $12.4 billion from the previous year—more than all other nations put together.
China, which was believed to have spent $13.5 billion last year, followed the United States, followed by Britain ($12.6 billion) and Russia ($9.5 billion), according to the report.

It found that the nine nations have spent more than $470 billion on their arsenals over the previous five years.

Extended lifespans
It is anticipated that these investments would increase in the future.
When looking at longer-term forecasts, ICAN cited data from the United States, Britain, and France that demonstrated plans to invest billions in the development and upkeep of nuclear weapons systems well into the next century.
It claimed that other nations were also launching new, long-lasting weaponry.
According to the research, expanding US plutonium pit output suggested that the nation's warheads would endure until 2120, while planned new US Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missiles were anticipated to continue operating into 2100.This will need a substantial investment; the United States is expected to spend almost $1 trillion developing nuclear weapons in only the ten years between 2025 and 2034.
The enormous amounts were especially startling, according to researchers, at a time when the international humanitarian system was suffering from severe budget reductions.
They claimed that more than two million people might have been guaranteed food security with only one day of nuclear weapons spending last year.
The nuclear-armed powers were investing in "an arsenal that they themselves know they cannot use without committing a war crime" rather than offering assistance or medical treatment to their citizens, according to Snyder.There appears to be a complete detachment from reality.