In the mid-1990s, when the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers was handing out two-letter country codes for top-level domains, the tiny British Overseas Territory of Anguilla received ‘.ai.’ Three decades later, that random assignment has become a financial windfall worth tens of millions annually.
Since ChatGPT launched at the end of 2022, companies racing to associate themselves with artificial intelligence have sparked a domain name rush that has transformed Anguilla’s economy.
The island nation of roughly 15,000 people has watched registration numbers climb from hundreds of thousands to over one million “.ai” domains as of early January 2026, according to data from Domain Name Stat.
Sources state that the revenue surge has been extraordinary. In 2023, Anguilla generated 87 million East Caribbean dollars (approximately $32 million) from domain name sales, representing 22% of total government revenue that year with 354,000 domains registered. By the government’s own projections in its 2026 budget address, that figure has more than doubled.
“Revenue from domain name registration continues to exceed expectations,” Premier Cora Richardson Hodge stated in the budget report. The document forecasts receipts from goods and services at EC$260.5 million (roughly $96.4 million) for the latest year, driven primarily by “.ai” domains.
Based on 2023 proportions, when domain registrations accounted for about 73% of that category, Anguilla likely collected approximately $70 million from “.ai” domains in the past year alone. This represents about 25% of the government’s budget.
The business model creates reliable recurring revenue. Anguilla typically charges $140 for a two-year domain registration, and about 90% of domains renew after that initial period. But the real money appears in auctions for expired premium domains sold through registrar Namecheap. Last September, someone paid $700,000 for “you.ai.” Even in a single recent week, 31 expired “.ai” domains sold for a combined total of approximately $1.2 million, according to domain sale tracker NameBio.
The situation bears some resemblance to another geography-based domain that became a tech darling. The “.io” extension, technically assigned to the British Indian Ocean Territory, became wildly popular among startups and technology companies because it resembles “input/output,” a fundamental programming concept.
That domain powered countless tech ventures and even spawned an entire genre of browser games. However, “.io” has remained controversial due to the territory’s history of displacement, and its future remains uncertain following international agreements about the Chagos Islands.
For a small island economy traditionally dependent on tourism, the domain revenue of Anguilla provides meaningful economic diversification. The money flows in regardless of weather patterns, travel trends, or global economic conditions that might affect visitor numbers.
