Anguilla's .ai Domain: A Windfall from the AI Boom

You can probably guess the domain name that's making Anguilla millions

Anguilla got lucky. Really lucky. When countries were being assigned nation-specific domain names decades ago during the early days of the internet, Anguilla's ".ai" attracted very little attention. But fast forward 40 or so years and it's suddenly turned into a serious cash cow for the tiny Caribbean island. And it doesn't take a genius to work out why. Thanks to a massive surge of interest in artificial intelligence (AI) that was kick-started by OpenAI with the launch of the generative-AI ChatGPT chatbot in 2022, a rush of individuals, businesses, and organizations have been paying Anguilla top dollar to register new websites with the .ai domain name, BBC News reported this week. Recommended Videos The BBC cites the example of U.S. tech entrepreneur Dharmesh Shah, who reportedly forked out a whopping $700,000 for the "you.ai" address that at some point will showcase a new AI-focused product. While Anguilla gets most of its income from tourism, the hurricane season can cause serious disruption to the flow of inbound travelers. It's true that most customers purchasing a .ai domain are spending nowhere near as much as Shah, but the cumulative effect of all of the extra business -- there are now 850,000 .ai registrations compared to just 50,000 five years ago -- is creating useful revenue for Anguilla, a British Overseas Territory. Indeed, the BBC's report notes that last year alone, Anguilla earned 105.5 million East Caribbean dollars (about $39 million) by selling domain names -- that's equal to almost a quarter of its total revenue for 2024. It's even edging toward the amount brought in by tourism, which accounts for 37% compared to the domain's 23%. If you're looking to make a fast buck yourself, you could purchase a .ai name at the regular price of around $100 a year and hope that someone comes knocking at your door later on to offer a tasty sum for it. Similarly, Anguilla is making some big sales because it held onto what it believed were ultra-premium names -- like you.ai -- and later released them at auction or set its own prices.

A Tiny Country in the Caribbean Is Making Millions Off Its Old Domain Name

New filings indicate the country earned more than $35 million in 2024 and will again this year. Anguilla is a small Caribbean island with a population of less than 20,000. It's also making millions off the tech industry. Last week, the BBC reported that Dharmesh Shah, the cofounder and CTO of HubSpot, paid the country $700,000 earlier this year to buy the web address you.ai for a new company. So how did a British Overseas Territory that's only 16 miles long and at its widest, 3.5 miles, become the king of AI domains? Anguilla gained .ai in the 1990s, when the Internet was in its infancy and countries acquired domain names, mostly at no cost, such as .us for the United States or .uk for the United Kingdom, to launch their websites. Related: A Great Domain Name Can Add Millions to Your Business -- Here's How to Get One (Even If It's Already Taken) Then, when ChatGPT launched in late 2022 and the new AI age began, companies from Google to Grok started buying up the .ai domains. Business Insider reports that there are now more than 850,000 .ai domains online. In 2020, there were fewer than 50,000. The AP reports that Anguilla earned around $38 million from selling domain names in 2024, up from $32 million in 2023, almost a quarter (23%) of its total revenue for the year. Tourism is still its No. 1 moneymaker at 37%, per the International Monetary Fund. "Some people call it a windfall", Anguilla's former premier, Ellis Webster, told The New York Times last year. "We just call it God smiling down on us."

How a Tiny Caribbean Island Cashes in on the Global A.I. Boom

Anguilla's ".ai" web domain is bringing in millions, rivaling tourism as a key economic driver. The economy of Anguilla, a small British territory in the Caribbean, has long relied on a steady flow of tourism. In recent years, however, the A.I. boom has created an entirely new source of revenue for the island -- one tied not to local tech innovation, but to Anguilla's ".ai" internet domain. Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter Sign Up Thank you for signing up! By clicking submit, you agree to our <a href="http://observermedia.com/terms">terms of service</a> and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime. See all of our newsletters It's common for countries to have their own domain name -- the U.S. has ".us," while ".uk" belongs to the U.K. But amid the surge of interest in A.I., Anguilla's internet address has become a lucrative asset. Companies and individuals are spending millions to secure websites with the sought-after ".ai" extension. In 2023, Anguilla -- which charges $140 for .ai domain registrations and renewals -- generated 87 million East Caribbean dollars ($32 million) in annual revenue from .ai domain names, according to a 2024 report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This accounted for 20 percent of the government's revenue from the year. By comparison, tourism makes up around 37 percent of Anguilla's GDP. "It had been growing fast for a very long time, and it grew extra fast after ChatGPT," Vincent Cate, a computer scientist who managed Anguilla's domain name for decades, told Observer. The number of .ai domain names continues to rise, with 881,715 registered as of this month compared to 40,600 in January 2020, according to Domain Name Stat, a domain-tracking website. To keep up with demand, Anguilla last year tapped Identity Digital, a firm specializing in domain registrations, to manage its digital goldmine. Anguilla isn't the first nation to profit from its web extension. Tuvalu, an island in the Pacific Ocean, has long earned revenue from its ".tv" domain. Montenegro's ".me" is a hit for personal websites, and the Federated States of Micronesia's ".fm" is popular with radio platforms. How sustainable is Anguilla's new revenue stream? For now, growth shows no signs of slowing. Sales from domain name registrations in 2024 exceeded Anguilla's expectations by more than 41 million East Caribbean dollars ($15 million), totaling over 105 million East Caribbean dollars ($39 million), according to the island's 2025 budget address. Officials project that figure will reach 132 million East Caribbean dollars ($49 million) next year. The money is a windfall for the island, which is only 16 miles long with a population under 20,000. Proceeds from .ai registrations are set to fund local projects, including expanding the airport, supporting elder health care and strengthening the island's technology vocational center. That isn't to say that Anguilla is taking its luck for granted. "It is crucial to remember that our financial planning cannot solely rely on the revenues from the .ai domain name registrations," said Ellis Webster, Anguilla's premier, during last year's budget address. "The digital landscape is ever-changing, and what seems like a perennial source today can rapidly evolve tomorrow." Even so, part of the revenue appears stable. Roughly 90 percent of domains are typically renewed after two years, according to the IMF. That renewal rate offers Anguilla a predictable cushion even as new registrations fluctuate. "Everybody renews their domains, and so there's sort of a certain level you can just count on," said Cate. "I'm very optimistic that the future for Anguilla is very bright."