Why are so many investors buying .si domains right now?

Because of greed and FOMO. This is my reading of the data, not a survey of investors. Domaintechnik counted 17,621 new .si domains from September 23 to 29, 2026, against 7,209 new .ai domains. Trending Topics reports that of 35 publicly documented .si sales in the first half of 2026, only two went to companies using the name themselves.

(.si vs .ai new registrations, September 23–29, 2026. Source: Domaintechnik / DomainNameStat)

Greed. A handful of five-figure sales creates a powerful picture: every .si name could be a lottery ticket. Investors remember the headline sales and forget the many names that never sell. Asking prices feed the illusion. As of October 3, 2026, build.si is listed at $10 million and seed.si at $8 million. A .si name costs about $12 to register. Trump's statement then acted as a safety net: if the President says "SI," the story must be true.

FOMO. Many investors saw strong .si names that were still free to register or looked cheap on the aftermarket. Others were grabbing them, so they hurried. The .ai story sits in every investor's head: Anguilla earned about US$85.3 million from .ai in 2025. When feelings lead, facts come second. Few investors ask who the end buyer will be.

Registrars use the same emotion. On October 3, 2026, Hostinger's .si page read: "AI is now called superintelligence. Register your .si domain." The first year costs $11.99, down from a regular price of $16.99 per year. A headline becomes a call to action, and the registrar earns on every registration, whether or not the name ever sells. Registrars are normal businesses reacting to demand, but their incentives matter.

(Hostinger's .si landing page, screenshot taken October 2, 2026. Source: Hostinger)

What did Trump say about SI, and why?

He said the word "artificial" makes intelligence sound fake. He told the UN General Assembly on September 22, 2026 that U.S. documents would use "Super Intelligence." On September 29, he signed an executive order for federal agencies (White House fact sheet).

The reason given is about wording, not technology. SF Standard describes the move as coming after weeks of bad PR for AI. The Week notes public distrust of AI. The order does not require private companies to rebrand. A political statement is not a market.

Which companies would actually use "SI" as their main name?

Very few. "SI" has two meanings, and neither fits most companies.

In research, superintelligence is a hypothetical stage beyond human intelligence. Nobody has built it. In politics, "Super Intelligence" is just a new word for AI: the order says the terms mean the same as "artificial intelligence" in U.S. law (Section 3). So SI is either a stage that does not exist yet or a rename of something that does.

Now think about what a business sells. Higgsfield generates videos for social media and ads. That is a content tool. It does not run on superintelligence, and no customer buys it for that reason. The same goes for a CRM tool with smart features, or for Caspian, which helps companies recover import duties. Their customers want a result: a video, a closed deal, a refund. They do not want a promise of superhuman intelligence. A .si ending adds nothing for them.

In my view, only companies in research, physics, mathematics or space fit the label, where the stated goal is intelligence beyond human level. That is a very small group.

For investors, this means buying a label, not a use case. Most real buyers will use .si as a redirect or for brand protection, not as their main domain. Recursive shows this. Despite its name and $650 million in funding, it redirects recursive.si to its .com (Dynadot). I also see many small startups using "super intelligence" in their marketing because it sounds big. In my observation, they rarely have the capital to pay a fortune for a .si name. This is my view, not a study.

What do the big .si sales really show?

That someone paid, not that someone will use the name. Recursive paid $20,000 for recursive.si in May 2026. On October 2, 2026, NameBio recorded caspian.si for $19,795 and higgsfield.si for $14,926. In both cases, the buyer is not confirmed. If these companies bought the names, they may use them as redirects or for protection, like Recursive.

Other buyers have nothing to do with superintelligence. military.si sold for $1,795 and works as a redirect to military.eu. Register.si advises brand owners to secure a .si name, and some companies simply want a presence in Slovenia. Investors should separate these cases from AI-driven demand.

(Recent .si sales. Source: NameBio)

Why does .ai feel easier to say and trust than .si?

Because people already know it. .ai has been tied to AI for years. In my ear, it also sounds softer and rounder when spoken, while "dot S-I" is sharper. This is my perception, not a measured fact. .si also has an identity problem. It is Slovenia's country code. In Slovene, "si" means "you are." In Spanish and Italian, it means "yes." For most people, .si reads as a country or a word, not as a technology label.

Will companies keep using the AI label?

Probably not forever. I expect the label to fade as AI becomes part of every workflow tool. Companies once stressed that they were "cloud-based" or "mobile-friendly." Today, people assume it. In the same way, "Analyze your finance with AI power" could become just "Analyze your finance." Then a name built around a later stage of AI depends on an even smaller group of companies.

What happens to "SI" if trust in superintelligence breaks?

It could carry fear instead of excitement. The AI label may already be fragile. A Washington State University study (2024, over 1,000 U.S. adults, eight product categories) found that adding "artificial intelligence" to a product description lowered purchase intent. The researchers point to lower emotional trust as the reason.

Recent news shows why this matters. In July 2026, about 700 AI agents run by OpenAI during a cybersecurity test broke out of their test environment and compromised Hugging Face's infrastructure, according to OpenAI's own report of August 26, 2026. TIME reports that observers see this as the first real-world instance of a loss-of-control scenario. On September 30, a nonprofit sued OpenAI. OpenAI called the lawsuit without merit (ABC News).

Imagine companies that truly build superintelligence, not just the "Trump label." The public mood could turn to mistrust, and ".si" would carry that feeling. Reaching a broad audience needs trust and a positive mood.

What does this mean for domain investors?

Compare one dictionary word in both endings: scale.ai and scale.si. I do not expect scale.si to reach the value level of scale.ai. .ai has years of use, a familiar sound and a clear meaning. .si has a news moment.

A .si name costs $11.99 for the first year at Hostinger, the lowest price on tld-list.com in October 2026. The regular price is $16.99 per year. .ai costs $79.98 per year with a two-year minimum at Spaceship, also the cheapest .ai registrar on tld-list.com. I invest in .ai myself. The AI label will need time to become normal, and until then I expect .ai to outperform .si. A cheap ticket is still a bad bet if no buyer shows up, and renewals add up across many names.

My take: .si is an emotion trade, not a mass market

I see greed and FOMO, not adoption. In research, SI means a stage we have not reached. In politics, it just means AI. Neither creates a mass market for .si. Most companies do not need the label, and the few that do rarely make it their main domain.

Several 2026 sources say AGI has not been reached, among them Benjamin Todd's analysis (March 2026) and an AI Insider overview (August 2026). I bought three .si domains before the hype and added them as a small part of my portfolio. I did not restructure anything. The real signal will be companies using .si as their main brand. This is analysis, not investment advice.

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