They care about both, and those goals are intertwined. Mirroring the core of alignment problem itself, the only way to have influence on the pace of the race is to be one of the winning players - if they fall off to the back, they cannot do anything about it anymore.

> the only way to have influence on the pace of the race is to be one of the winning players

Yeah I don't buy that, every additional player is just adding fuel to the fire.

Would the cold war be "safer" if it were US, Russia and a 3rd player? Of course not, it would just make it harder to coordinate any safety measures.