$ dig AAAA ec2.us-east-1.api.aws
...
2600:1f70:8000:a0:41d7:f53b:34f4:5798
The EC2 API is available over IPv6. AWS services that support IPv6 for their APIs use the .aws TLD and the SDKs and CLIs know how to invoke that when IPv6 is preferred. See https://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/rande.html#dua...The reason is for backwards compatibility. If IPv6 was simply added to the original names, some clients would instantly shift from using IPv4 to IPv6 and in the process break any customer IAM policy in place that is restricted by IP address. Some day it may be the right call to let that kind of breakage happen, but for now the preference is to ensure that customers are not surprised.
See also: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/latest/userguide/aws-ipv6-su...