Anguilla is a small Caribbean islan with a population of 16000 | Photos: Jayne Lipkovich / Shutterstock
About 30 years ago, when the internet was created, all countries were assigned domains based on their names.
The UK, for example, got .co.uk. Spain was assigned .es, and the tiny Caribbean island of Anguilla was assigned .ai.
That domain was not a big deal until very recently, when the AI boom came about, and huge artificial intelligence companies and not-so-big startups all began scrambling to get websites ending with ‘ai’ to showcase their revolutionary technologies. Google immediately got their .ai website domain, although it now redirects you to ai. Google, which does not mean they’ve staked and continue owning Google.ai, where they showcase their artificial intelligence stuff. Elon Musk’s Grok AI platform can be found at x.ai.
Domain names make up 20% of the island’s revenue
Google and Musk had to pay Anguilla for the .ai domain. And because of the rush to get that domain extension, Anguilla’s income from website sales increased 4x in 2023 to $32 million (approximately 28.3 million euros or 24 million GBP).
Incredibly enough, website address sales account for one-fifth of the country’s government’s revenue.
Recently, Anguilla said that thanks to the AI gold rush, the government is funding key projects for its 16,000 citizens across the island, which was hit by a crippling hurricane in 2017 and a drop in tourism due to COVID-19.
The Anguillan recognises they have been lucky to get the .ai domain in 1995, because Antigua, another nearby Caribbean island, could have been assigned that same domain extension as it too has an “a” and “i” in its name.
