Anguilla Set To “Make Millions” From AI Domain
Anguilla — a British Overseas Territory — is expected to see “a surge in demand for web addresses ending with .ai, thanks to the frenzy around artificial intelligence,” according to various reports.
A Bloomberg story said, “Anguilla is expected to make millions this year from a surge in demand for web addresses ending with .ai, thanks to the frenzy around artificial intelligence.
“Stability.ai, Elon Musk’s X.ai and Character.ai are just a few of the hot artificial intelligence startups that have snapped up the .ai domain assigned to the islands and cays that comprise Anguilla. Plenty of tech giants have their own web addresses ending in .ai as well: Google.ai and Facebook.ai route visitors to their company’s AI-focused webpages and Microsoft.ai shows off the company’s Azure AI services.
“The total number of registrations of sites ending with these two letters has effectively doubled in the past year to 287,432, according to Vince Cate, who for decades has managed the .ai domain for Anguilla. Cate estimates Anguilla will bring in as much as $30 million in domain-registration fees for 2023. [Government officials did not respond to requests for comment.]
“Since ChatGPT launched, a growing number of tech companies have raced to raise billions in capital, scoop up engineering talent and secure powerful but increasingly scarce chips. A domain may sound less essential, but for an industry obsessed with clever branding, the right name can be everything.”
“Since November 30, things are very different here,” Cate said, referring to the date when ChatGPT launched publicly.
A Business Insider story said, “According to the most recent UN data, Anguilla had an annual GDP of $288 million in 2021. That means the .ai domain could be worth around 10% of its total domestic product.
“Tuvalu — the Pacific island nation with a population of 11,000 — has also benefitted from its own country code. Its “.tv” domain is used by several video-centric websites like Twitch. In 2019, Tuvalu made $7.1 million, about 8% of the government’s total revenue, from leasing the domain.”
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