How A 35-Square-Mile Caribbean Island Just Found Its Own El Dorado Thanks To AI

The tiny, almost unknown, Caribbean island of Anguilla is poised to reshape its economic landscape through an unexpected ally — artificial intelligence.

This sun-soaked island with a population of about 15,000 people, spanning 35 square miles and nestled in proximity to Puerto Rico and the British Virgin Islands, is on the brink of experiencing an economic windfall like never before in its history, all thanks to the remarkable rise of AI technologies.

The catalyst behind this transformation is an unassuming aspect of the digital world — internet domain names.

Since 1990, Anguilla has managed the delegation of internet addresses culminating in “.ai” to businesses and residents seeking an online presence.

Windfall AI Profits Could Reach Over 10% of The Island’s GDP

The “.ai” domain, recognized as the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Anguilla, is under the direct purview of the island’s government. Registration fees associated with these domains have been channeled into Anguilla’s governmental coffers, thereby becoming a substantial source of revenue.

Leading registrars such as GoDaddy and NameCheap charges its clients a fixed fee of $140 for a two-year registration, marking an increase from $120 earlier this year.

The total number of registrations for sites ending with .ai has effectively doubled in the past year, reaching 287,432, as reported by Vince Cate, the manager of the .ai domain for Anguilla who was interviewed by Bloomberg. Cate estimated Anguilla could generate up to $30 million in domain registration fees for 2023.

If you consider the $30 million in revenue generated from .ai domains as insignificant, it’s worth juxtaposing this with the nation’s GDP.

United Nations estimates from 2021 pegged Anguilla’s GDP at $288 million, meaning the AI-fueled domain earnings would account for approximately 10% of the island’s GDP. This scenario likely positions Anguilla as one of the world’s biggest winners from AI, at least for the time being.

Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg Bought .ai Domains

Prominent AI startups, including Stability.ai, Elon Musk’s X.ai and Character.ai have embraced the “.ai” domain assigned to the picturesque islands and cays constituting Anguilla.

Plenty of tech giants have their own web addresses ending in .ai as well: Alphabet Inc.‘s GOOGL GOOG Google.ai and Meta Platforms Inc.’s META Facebook.ai route visitors to their company's AI-focused webpages and Microsoft Corp. MSFT’s Microsoft.ai shows off the company's Azure AI services.

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This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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