Surge: 2023 Global nuclear weapons spending

In 2023, the nine nuclear-armed states spent $10.8 billion (13.4%) more on their nuclear arsenals than the year before, a total of $91.4 billion. In 2023, twenty companies working on nuclear weapons development and maintenance earned at least $31 billion for this work. In 2023, at least $7.9 billion in new nuclear weapon contracts were awarded. Each company that builds nuclear weapons exerts influence throughout the government, think tanks and financial institutions. These companies spent $118 million lobbying governments in the US and France, an $11 million increase from 2022. Several companies held more than a dozen meetings with UK officials in 2023, with two companies meeting UK officials more than 40 times, and five companies meeting with the UK Prime Minister. Companies donated more than $6 million to the top think tanks researching and writing about nuclear weapons and current and former employees of these companies sit on think tank boards of directors and advisory councils. ICAN has published this annual analysis for five years, and in that time, global nuclear spending has increased by 34%.