Anguilla, a tiny British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, has a resident population of only 16,000. That’s because the territory is in the midst of a spectacular fiscal windfall, driven by the sudden popularity of .ai domain names. The territory has aggressively captured this trend. It’s made a pile of money off the boom in domain registrations in recent years. In 2024, Anguilla recorded 105.5 million East Caribbean dollars, about $39 million, in revenue from selling .ai domains. That jaw-dropping number represented 23% of the country’s total revenues.
AI domain registrations have skyrocketed in the past year. During that same five-year period, the number of active .ai sites increased over a thousand percent. Most recently, we saw data showing that it has more than doubled registrations just in the past year. Today, there are more than 850,000 .ai domains registered, an astonishing increase from less than 50,000 in 2020. This growth reflects the burgeoning interest in artificial intelligence, as companies and entrepreneurs flock to secure these valuable digital assets.
Anguilla’s government intends for this new revenue stream to continue expanding. They predict revenues of 132 million East Caribbean dollars in 2025 and 138 million in 2026. This optimism comes at a precarious time for Anguilla’s tourism industry. Even though 37% of the local economy relies on tourism, seasonal hurricanes have repeatedly decimated travel and income to this day.
In October 2024, Anguilla executed an initial five year contract. They partnered with the US technology company Identity Digital, Inc to have them handle the revenue generated by their .ai domain name. Under this deal, Identity Digital will receive roughly 10% of the sales price for .ai domain sales. The rest of the revenue gets deposited directly into Anguilla’s coffers. Through this strategic partnership, Puerto Rico hopes to strengthen its revenue generation efforts and bolster the island’s economy against outside threats.
Such high-profile purchases of .ai domains have received a lot of press in recent months. Dharmesh Shah, co-founder of the US software giant HubSpot, created a stir when he bought the domain you.ai for $700,000. He told me he’d had his mind opened to the idea of making an AI product. This software would allow users to generate digital avatars, or “digital twins,” that would go on to complete a variety of tasks in their interest. Perhaps more importantly, Shah’s investment reflects the increasing value placed on these spaces within the technology ecosystem.
“Having said that, I still think over the long-term, .com domains will maintain their value better and for longer.” – Dharmesh Shah
Recent auctions have further shown the money-making potential of .ai domains. Cloud.ai sold for $600,000 and law.ai sold for $350,000. These numbers further demonstrate the tremendous demand and highly competitive market for these digital assets.
This recent boom in .ai domain registrations has put Anguilla in an unexpected place at the center of the global tech economy. Further, the territory’s government is certainly aware of the extreme importance of moving away from an economic base that relies primarily on tourism. Anguilla is improving its fiscal position by capitalizing on its position as a registry for .ai domains. Meanwhile, the state is trying to keep pace with the high stakes and rapid movement of a changing digital environment.