In 1995, a tiny Caribbean island got handed .ai: the domain ending nobody wanted.
Anguilla (population ~15,000) was assigned .ai basically by lottery. For 27 years, it sat there collecting dust.
Then, in November 2022, ChatGPT dropped, and the entire world suddenly wanted anything that screamed "AI".
Today? It's generational wealth on autopilot.
The Numbers Are Wild:
Registrations: Exploded to over 1.2 million domains. Still adding hundreds to thousands every single day.
Revenue:
Pre-2022: ~$2-3M per year
2025: ~$85M: now funding nearly half of Anguillaโs entire national budget
This tiny island is pulling in thousands of dollars($3K) per citizen per year from AI startups worldwide, basically for free digital infrastructure.
They're investing it in:
Lower taxes
Free healthcare for kids
A brand new international airport
Roads and more
Got handed two letters in the '90s โ built a digital goldmine. Talk about the ultimate passive income story.
It's one of the funniest, most wholesome "right place, right time" tales in tech. The island didn't chase AI - AI chased them.
Just found a clean open-source combo that turns any local AI coding agent into a surprisingly capable design studio.
awesome-design-md gives you real DESIGN.md files from Linear, Stripe, Vercel, Notion, etc.
open-design wires them in with 71 brand systems, 19 skills, 5 visual directions, sandbox preview + one-click exports.
Fully local, no cloud limits, no rate caps, feels as effective as Claude Design but without the lock-in. Generated a clean Linear-style landing page in one prompt this week. Worked great.
Links:
https://t.co/gaKiqj3M9e ~ 67.2K Stars
https://t.co/9jiAqZUU0y ~ 400+ stars in a few hours
if you give it a try ๐