Imagine: You’re a 20-something AI entrepreneur and then your startup’s website gets trapped with — gasp — a “.com” domain. How passe. How embarrassing.

What are you, 45 years old?

Gotta get that “.ai” domain

When you do, it’s to the direct benefit of Anguilla, a 35-square-mile, ~19k-person British territory in the Caribbean.

• In the 1980s, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) started assigning two-letter domains to nations and territories.
• These top-level domains have been a key part of Internet geography ever since; “.au’ for Australia, “.ca” for Canada, “.jp” for Japan, and so on.
• In 1995, Anguilla pulled “.ai,” which is now paying off — big.

In 2018, the nation was annually making $2.9m from the domains, per The New York Times, covering the combined salaries of all of the territory’s primary-school educators.

Anguilla is now making that amount per month, according to IEEE Spectrum.

It’ll only get better

Next year, Anguilla expects 2x its windfall from the “.ai” domain rush, up to $6m per month, just from existing renewals that’ll pay out at higher rates. New domain sales, meanwhile, increased 4x in the five months following ChatGPT’s November 2022 launch.

• Vince Cate, who manages Anguilla’s domain registrations, told IEEE Spectrum his work is “already like a third of the government’s budget.”
• Thanks to “.ai” domains, Cate said the nation has been able to pay some debts down and eliminate residential property taxes.

They almost blew it

In the domain’s early days, Cate said a Taiwanese company convinced the government to hand over admin control of its domain, promising a cash infusion from “.ai” domain sales in China (where “ai” means love).

That never materialized and the company ghosted Anguillan officials for a few years before the island government ultimately reclaimed its eventual cash cow.

BTW: This kind of thing has happened before. In 1998, the Pacific island of Tuvalu opened up its “.tv” domain registry; by 2018, domains accounted for 10% of the Tuvalu government’s revenue.

Expensive gas, pricey groceries, and out-of-reach homes are all painful reminders of inflation.

But what hurts the most is when it comes for our simple pleasures, like our takeout.

And for those who frequent New York City’s food carts, that’s exactly what happened, per The New York Times.

The Halal Plates food cart in downtown Manhattan paints a picture of rising prices:

• Chicken over rice — the most popular dish, comprising two-thirds of the cart’s revenue — now costs $10, up from $6 before the pandemic.
• The cart’s owners pay $22.50 for a 10-pound bag of chicken, ~2x what it cost in 2020.
• The price of takeout containers rose from $11 to $28 per box between 2020 and 2024.
• White sauce went from $9 to $13 a gallon, while red sauce rose from $11 to $23.

And it’s not a food cart without two cooks (who make $150 per day each) and storage space in Brooklyn for $450 a month, among other expenses.

The biggest cost of all, though, is the cart itself. The owners paid $47k to buy one new in 2019, then shelled out $3.7k for an electronic sign, $2k for menu displays, $2k for a generator, and $18k every two years for an illegally obtained New York City food cart permit.

Risky business

While that price tag might sound steep for a slip of paper, those permits are in demand in NYC, where ~9.5k food vendors are waiting for one.

A cap imposed in the ’80s limited the amount of vending permits to 5.1k. Then, in 2021, City Council voted to add 445 new permits every year for a decade.

Still, as a shortcut, many business owners resort to black markets and pay highly inflated prices to rent permits from their original holders.

Tall order

Between the rising costs of ingredients, labor, gas, and parking, the shady permit business, and the fact that remote work means slimmer workday crowds, food cart operators have their work cut out for them.

In the winter, Halal Plates makes ~$500 a day. In the summer, sales can range from $700 to $1.4k daily.

The good news for vendors and our stomachs: new bills offer hope for ending the cap on New York vendor permits.

• Rotten tomatoes: Like everything else, the red grocery staple is facing price hikes. A Florida trade group has proposed a 21% “tomato tax” on imports that would benefit the farmers and conglomerates it represents but send US tomato prices soaring. Though, to do this, it must convince the Department of Commerce to terminate the Tomato Suspension Agreement, a trade agreement that’s ensured fair prices on tomato imports for the past ~30 years.
• Meta wants Mark Zuckerberg to find a hobby that won't kill him. In its 2023 financial report, the company disclosed that its CEO’s proclivity for combat and extreme sports, like MMA and hydrofoiling, poses a risk of death and serious injury that, if actualized, would have a “materially adverse impact” on its operations. Coincidentally, Meta saw record gains following the report, adding $196B to its market value and $28.1B to Zuckerberg’s own fortune — so maybe let him do his thing?
• Did your tax dollars fund Bad Bunny’s beer commercial? Possibly, if you live in Puerto Rico: The US commonwealth contributed ~$800k in taxpayer subsidies toward a 2020 Corona ad campaign featuring the Puerto Rican rapper. However, its investment wasn’t inspired by hometown pride, but its film tax credit program, through which the campaign generated 46 local jobs and 120 hotel bookings. Here’s the thing, though: most of the filming took place in Los Angeles. Huh.
• America’s only restaurant serving lab-grown chicken just stopped selling it. San Francisco’s Bar Crenn, a Michelin-starred restaurant headed by celebrity chef Dominique Crenn, ended its trial run serving Upside Foods’ cultivated chicken. It had offered the protein, which received FDA approval last spring, as part of a $150 tasting menu since August. Sad you didn’t get a taste? Don’t worry — Upside Foods will continue to collaborate with Crenn as well as others to bring its flagship product to pop-up events in March.