Trump's "Super Intelligence" order set off a land grab for .si domains
If you've seen odd ".si" web addresses popping up around AI projects, blame a White House style guide. After President Donald Trump told US agencies to say "Super Intelligence" instead of "Artificial Intelligence", registrations for Slovenia's .si domain jumped 2,199% in September. Registry SI counted 46,066 new domains. Speculators, not AI companies, appear to be buying many of them.
The order
Trump signed the order on September 29. Federal agencies must use "Super Intelligence" and the abbreviation "SI" in official correspondence, websites and reports where the law allows. Existing regulations and contracts stay as they are. His UN speech a week earlier had already started the speculation.
The rush came fast. Registry SI logged about 11,000 new .si domains on September 30 and nearly 13,000 in the following 24 hours. Hostinger, a web host, told TechCrunch that .si became its second most popular domain ending after .com. More than half of its buyers were in the US and India.
The resale game
Only about 3% of the new .si names at Hostinger were clearly tied to AI or "super intelligence". Most were uncategorized. Netcraft data cited by Trending Topics found that about 52% of .si domains registered through Dynadot were listed for resale almost immediately. Some asking prices reach $10 million. Asking prices are not sale prices, and claims that insiders made hundreds of millions remain unconfirmed.
Registry SI's spokesperson also cautioned that the White House order may not explain the whole surge.
No second Anguilla
The obvious comparison is .ai. Anguilla, the Caribbean territory behind that domain, has earned substantial revenue from the AI boom. Slovenia is unlikely to repeat that.
A .si name costs about $12 in its first year at Hostinger. A .ai name costs around $90 a year, and buyers must pay for two years up front. Registry SI charges registrars a wholesale fee of €10 per domain. Domain Name Wire estimates the extra September revenue at roughly €300,000. That is a third-party calculation, not an official figure. The registry is run by an academic network, so the money doesn't flow straight to the state treasury.
Who should care
Anyone who owns a brand with "SI" in it should check which .si names are taken. Registry SI has warned brand owners about the risk. The domains are open worldwide through accredited registrars, so there is no regional restriction. Whether demand lasts depends on whether anyone else adopts "Super Intelligence". So far, only the US government has.
