Cut throat competition between nations is usually called war. In war, gathering as much information as possible on everyone is certainly a strategic wanna do. Selling psyops about how much benefits will come for everyone willing to join the one sided industrial dependency also is a thing. Giving significant boost to potentially adversarial actors is not a thing.

That said universe don't obligate us to think the cosmos is all about competition. Cooperation is always possible as a viable path, often with far more long term benefits at scale.

Competition is superfluous self inflict masochism.