"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."
"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."
Anguilla is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean with fewer than 20,000 residents. The territory controls the country-code top-level domain .ai, assigned in the 1990s. The rise of generative AI after ChatGPT's 2022 debut triggered huge demand for .ai domains, with registrations rising from fewer than 50,000 in 2020 to over 850,000. High-value sales include a reported $700,000 purchase of you.ai. Domain sales generated about $38 million for Anguilla in 2024, up from $32 million in 2023, representing roughly 23% of national revenue. Tourism remains the largest revenue source at 37%.
Read at Entrepreneur
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