The internet’s latest domain rush has an unexpected winner: the .si extension.
Demand surged after President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing US government agencies to refer to artificial intelligence (AI) as super intelligence (SI).
Coincidentally, that’s Slovenia’s country-specific domain.
Registrations skyrocket
Registry SI, which manages Slovenia’s domains, reported a 2,199% increase in .si purchases last month, up from fewer than 2,000 in August, a spokesperson told the BBC.
Around 11,000 new addresses were registered on September 30, a day after Trump signed the order. Nearly 13,000 more were registered over the following 24 hours.
Web hosting platform Hostinger recorded about 4,300 registrations on September 30 and 5,400 on October 1. More than half of its buyers came from the US and India. However, Wix reported no meaningful increase, suggesting the surge varies across platforms.
Another .ai boom?
The rush echoes the earlier boom in .ai domains, which generated millions of dollars for Anguilla, the Caribbean island associated with the extension.
Some entrepreneurs are buying .si addresses to protect their brands, while others hope to resell them for a profit. Interestingly, only around 3% of .si domains registered through Hostinger were explicitly related to AI.
Cheaper alternative
Hostinger charges about $12 annually for .si, compared with roughly $90 for .ai.
Experts expect demand to grow but do not anticipate .si replacing .ai anytime soon.