I'll throw out that two additional motivations that entities have to frame things as a race:

- Delay thoughtful regulation of the technology - if you can delay it long enough until the entity gets big enough to fund lobbying efforts, its much easier to reach steady state/too big to fail status

- Gain access to government funding - as a consultant, if there's no existential crisis of being forever stuck in second place (no one wants to be behind), its much harder to provide thought leadership seminars/get fully paid vacations (i.e. speaking events).