How sheer luck made this tiny Caribbean island millions from its web address
31 August 2025
Jacob Evans BBC World Service
Back in the 1980s when the internet was still in its infancy, countries were being handed their own unique website addresses to navigate this nascent new online world. Such as .us for the US or .uk for the UK.
Eventually, almost every country and territory had a domain based on either its English or own language name. This included the small Caribbean island of Anguilla, which landed the address .ai.
Unbeknownst to Anguilla at the time, this would become a future jackpot.
With the continuing boom in artificial intelligence (AI), more and more companies and individuals are paying Anguilla, a British Overseas Territory, to register new websites with the .ai tag.
Such as US tech boss Dharmesh Shah, who earlier this year spent a reported $700,000 (£519,000) on the address you.ai.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Shah says he purchased it because he had "an idea for an AI product that would allow people to create digital versions of themselves that could do specific tasks on their behalf".
The number of .ai websites has increased more than 10-fold in the past five years, and has doubled in the past 12 months alone, according to a website that tracks domain name registrations.
The challenge for Anguilla, which has a population of just 16,000 people, is how to harness this lucrative bit of luck and turn it into a long-term and sustainable source of income.
BBC
How Anguilla’s .ai Domain is Funding its FutureFrom airport upgrades to sports facilities, this Caribbean island is turning domain dollars into real-world infrastructure
Darren Douglas
May 09, 2025
substack
Revenues from domain registrations is expected to reach 50 percent of the state budget in 2025. |
