As governments around the world grapple with rising food insecurity, climate-related disasters, and growing economic pressures on households, a new report shows that nuclear-armed nations are directing unprecedented sums toward the maintenance and expansion of their atomic arsenals.
According to research released Tuesday by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the world’s nine nuclear-armed countries spent a combined $119 billion on nuclear weapons in 2025, the highest amount ever recorded. The figure represents an increase of $16.8 billion over the previous year and amounts to approximately $3,768 every second.
The report paints a picture of accelerating nuclear modernization across every nuclear-armed state at a time when advocates argue resources are urgently needed elsewhere. The findings arrive amid mounting concerns over global instability, renewed geopolitical rivalries, and the erosion of international arms-control agreements that once placed limits on the world’s most destructive weapons.
No country spent more than the United States, which accounted for $69.2 billion of the global total. According to ICAN, U.S. spending increased by $12.6 billion from the previous year and exceeded the combined nuclear expenditures of all other nuclear powers.
China ranked as the second-largest spender with an estimated $13.5 billion, followed by the United Kingdom at $12.6 billion, Russia at $9.5 billion, and France at $7.7 billion. India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea also increased spending, with expenditures ranging from approximately $656 million in North Korea to $2.8 billion in India.
The report found that every nuclear-armed nation increased spending compared with 2024, a trend that analysts say signals the continuation of a long-term buildup rather than isolated national decisions.
ICAN’s researchers argue that these investments are being made despite widespread social and economic challenges confronting populations across the globe.
“At a time when the cost of living is skyrocketing and food and fuel are unaffordable for so many, it is unthinkable that these nine countries are spending billions on a false promise of security,” said Susi Snyder, ICAN’s director of programs and co-author of the report. “Nuclear weapons cannot be used without causing catastrophe, and the false logic of nuclear deterrence requires us to trust our enemies with our very survival.”
The report highlights the scale of spending through a series of comparisons intended to demonstrate what advocates view as the opportunity costs of maintaining nuclear arsenals.
According to ICAN, world hunger could have been ended with an amount equivalent to what nuclear-armed countries spent over the last three years alone. Researchers also noted that total nuclear spending in 2025 was equal to 32 times the annual budget of the United Nations.
“The spending on nuclear weapons in 2025 is equal to 32 times the regular UN annual budget for the year,” the report states. “One second of British nuclear spending could have bought 242 liters of petrol, even with fuel prices skyrocketing. Investments in energy transition and decentralization efforts would also have contributed to addressing fuel insecurity; one day of nuclear weapons spending could have instead helped 17,000 individuals transition to solar-powered homes or paid to plant 2 billion trees.”
The report concludes that such alternatives would provide a fundamentally different vision of security.
“That is a way to spend for security,” the report adds, “not the premeditated mass murder this spending represents.”
Beyond government budgets, ICAN’s research focuses heavily on the private companies benefiting from continued nuclear weapons investments.
The organization identified 19 companies with contracts worth at least $375 billion tied to nuclear weapons-related work in the United States. Those companies include Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, General Dynamics, RTX (Raytheon), Huntington Ingalls Industries, Honeywell International, BAE Systems, Leidos, Bechtel, Fluor, BWX Technologies, L3 Harris, Leonardo, Rolls Royce, Peraton, Textron, SPAInc, and Amentum.
“The US has the most companies involved in its nuclear arsenal,” the report states.
Researchers also documented lobbying expenditures connected to the nuclear weapons industry. According to ICAN, U.S. corporations that are “significantly involved in nuclear weapons production” spent $134 million on lobbying efforts in 2025.
The findings raise questions about the role of defense contractors in shaping long-term nuclear policy and the extent to which public oversight exists over programs that often span decades and involve hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer funding.
ICAN argues that nuclear weapons spending frequently receives limited public scrutiny despite its scale and long-term implications.
“This project has documented exorbitant spending on nuclear weapons for years, outside of democratic oversight or public scrutiny,” the report states. “The funds that go to nuclear arms could instead have strengthened global diplomatic capacities, including through the United Nations, to generate sustained security through multilateral agreement. Instead, a new nuclear arms race is underway, demonstrating a long-term plan that if not stopped, has the potential to end life as we know it.”
The report’s release coincides with broader concerns about the future of nuclear disarmament efforts.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute recently warned that nuclear-armed countries are increasingly prioritizing modernization programs while stepping away from longstanding disarmament commitments. At the same time, the international framework designed to limit nuclear weapons has weakened considerably.
The nine nuclear-armed nations are estimated to possess more than 12,000 nuclear warheads, with the overwhelming majority controlled by the United States and Russia.
Although the United Nations adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in 2017, creating the first legally binding international agreement banning nuclear weapons, none of the countries possessing nuclear arsenals have joined the treaty. Ninety-nine nations have signed, ratified, or acceded to the agreement.
Meanwhile, one of the last remaining pillars of bilateral nuclear arms control has disappeared. Beginning in the early 1990s, the United States and Russia entered into a series of agreements aimed at limiting the size of their nuclear stockpiles. The final agreement in that series, New START, expired in February without a replacement treaty in place.
Against that backdrop, ICAN warns that governments are making decisions that could lock future generations into maintaining nuclear arsenals for decades.
“Several nuclear-armed states have published nuclear weapons spending projections of tens of billions or even past $1 trillion for the next decade or several decades,” the report states. “And all nuclear-armed states have weapons systems that will remain operational at least until 2050, if not until the next century.”
The report concludes with a warning about the choices facing governments, financial institutions, and the public as spending on nuclear weapons reaches unprecedented levels.
“Every citizen, politician, and banker can choose to further the development and maintenance of nuclear weapons or demand their dismantlement,” the report concludes.
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