Anguilla now generates 47% of its income from .ai domains, up from <1% prior (old.reddit.com)

Anguilla’s government reports that revenue from registrations of the country code top-level domain .ai has surged to 47% of its income, up from under 1% previously — a dramatic shift driven by global demand for AI-branded web real estate. The ccTLD’s rise reflects the explosion of AI startups, products and services using “.ai” as a compact, meaningful identifier for model endpoints, demo sites, and commercial offerings. Many companies treat .ai names as premium assets for marketing, API endpoints, and short, memorable URLs that signal AI-native services. For the AI/ML community this matters both symbolically and practically: it underscores how domain strategy is now integral to product branding and distribution for models and SaaS, and it highlights new economic and governance dynamics around internet infrastructure. Technically, widespread .ai use raises routine but important issues for ML deployments — DNS and SSL management for endpoints, CORS/TLS for model APIs, certificate automation, and domain security — while the financial payoff to a single small jurisdiction spotlights risks around centralization of digital-asset revenue, premium pricing, and aftermarket speculation. The trend could influence naming norms, registry policies, and how teams think about operationalizing and protecting model endpoints on the public web.