How a 15,000-Person Island Stumbled Into a $70 Million AI Windfall (sherwood.news)
- Reference: 0180660236
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/01/26/1731231/how-a-15000-person-island-stumbled-into-a-70-million-ai-windfall
- Source link: https://sherwood.news/tech/now-more-one-million-ai-websites-contributing-an-estimated-70-million-anguilla-government-revenue/
> From Sandisk shareholders to vibe coders, AI is making -- and breaking -- fortunes at a rapid pace. One unlikely beneficiary has been the British Overseas Territory of Anguilla, which lucked into a future fortune when ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, gave the island the ".ai" top-level domain in the mid-1990s. Indeed, since ChatGPT's launch at the end of 2022, the gold rush for websites to associate themselves with the burgeoning AI technology has seen a flood of revenue for the island of just ~15,000 people.
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> In 2023, Anguilla generated 87 million East Caribbean dollars (~$32 million) from domain name sales, some 22% of its total government revenue that year, with 354,000 ".ai" domains registered. As of January 2, 2026, the number of ".ai" domains surpassed 1 million, per data from Domain Name Stat -- suggesting that the nation's revenue from ".ai" has likely soared, too. This is confirmed in the government's 2026 budget address, in which Cora Richardson Hodge, the premier of Anguilla, said, "Revenue from domain name registration continues to exceed expectations."
[1] https://sherwood.news/tech/now-more-one-million-ai-websites-contributing-an-estimated-70-million-anguilla-government-revenue/
If I had known... (Score:2)
If I had known how much an .ai domain was going to rocket in price at renewal time, I might have thought twice before founding my business on it. Too late now.
Re: (Score:2)
> If I had known how much an .ai domain was going to rocket in price at renewal time, I might have thought twice before founding my business on it. Too late now.
Do the natives get a discount?
(Never thought I'd be pondering about "resident" discount rates in non-meatspace but here we are, justifying "value" with this hyped bullshit.)
I should just go register .skynet now. AI will pay a mint for that shit.
'Just 15,000 people' (Score:2)
Quite small... not really. $4,000 per person sounds nice, I wonder if the people actually saw any of it or if perhaps their property taxes were waved for that year. I am guessing no.
Re: 'Just 15,000 people' (Score:3)
Government threw a few lavish parties and press releases congratulating themselves on a job well done!
I note that ai.ai.ai.ai (Score:3)
... is owned by the [1]Frito Bandito [youtu.be].
[1] https://youtu.be/nfPJkn4eKeY?si=L9K7XzRrzgxXP2Pz&t=10
Re: (Score:2)
Shockingly, that domain name appears to be available.
Tuvalu (Score:5, Informative)
This is similar to what happened to the Pacific Island of Tuvalu back in the 1990s. They had the ".tv" domain. On a per-capita basis, it was a lot more than this.
Re: The OG goat. (Score:2)
Where's Rick ? I hope you are not insinuating that he let you down?
Re: (Score:2)
> Where's Rick Astley when you need him..
We're no strangers to love ...
[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ