The .si Domain Rush: Did "Super Intelligence" Just Create the Next .ai?

A two-letter coincidence has set off one of the stranger domain rushes of 2026. On September 22, President Trump told the UN General Assembly that he wanted to say "super intelligence" (SI) instead of artificial intelligence (AI). On September 29 he signed an executive order making that the rule inside the federal executive branch. SI also happens to be the internet country code for Slovenia, and domain buyers noticed straight away.

One correction before the numbers, because it is spreading online: the US government has not approved or endorsed .si domains. It changed its own vocabulary. The .si domain still belongs to Slovenia and is run by its national registry. The figures below come from reports published between October 1 and 3, 2026, and they are moving fast.

What's Actually Real Here

The order is real. Executive Order 14434, titled "Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence," tells executive departments and agencies to use "Super Intelligence" and "SI" in place of "Artificial Intelligence" and "AI" in official correspondence, websites, reports and other non-statutory materials, to the maximum extent permitted by law. Existing statutes, regulations and contracts stay as they are. According to Wiley's legal analysis, the order keeps the existing legal definition of AI for now, so it is a change of terminology rather than of substance. The IAPP adds that the president's science and technology adviser must submit proposed legislative language on a federal definition of "super intelligence" within 60 days, which by our count from the signing date falls in late November 2026.

The surge is real. Register.si, the .si registry, reported 46,066 new .si registrations in September, including 13,603 in the 24 hours before October 1, taking the registry total to 241,459. Earlier in the month the pace had been roughly 100 a day, and registrations approached 12,000 a day in the final two days of September. Third-party counts from the registrar Domaintechnik put registrations on September 23 at 3,234, more than 30 times the earlier daily rate, and found about 2.4 times as many new .si domains as .ai domains between September 23 and 29.

Where the Hype Outruns the Reality

Much of the demand looks like speculation, not building. Netcraft found that about 52% of the .si names registered through the registrar Dynadot between September 19 and 22 were soon offered for resale, and Domain Name Wire found little evidence so far of companies adopting .si as an operating identity rather than investors acquiring names for resale, as CircleID reports. Some commentators online have also alleged that insiders profited from advance knowledge of the order. The reporting we found says the public records reviewed do not establish that, so treat it as an unproven claim.

The order has a narrow reach. It governs how US federal agencies write. It doesn't oblige companies, other governments or search engines to say "SI" instead of "AI", and whether the term catches on outside Washington is an open question. Wiley notes that existing statutes, regulations and contracts will keep saying "AI", so organisations will meet both vocabularies.

Then there's the money. The .si registry charges registrars €10 per domain and has rejected reports that the surge is bringing in millions of euros for Slovenia, while Domain Name Wire estimated roughly €300,000 in additional registry revenue for September.

Why the .ai Comparison Is Harder Than It Looks

The .ai comparison is the whole pitch, so it's worth checking. According to Anguilla Focus, the territory's .ai revenue was EC$86.83 million in 2023 and EC$104.25 million in 2024, before reaching EC$230.5 million (about US$85.3 million) in 2025. Registrations passed one million worldwide in January 2026. In September 2025 a government representative told BBC Radio 5 Live that .ai was expected to generate nearly half of the government's total revenue that year.

In other words, .ai grew over years of real demand from the AI industry. .si has had days of mostly speculative buying. Another difference is search: Google's documentation on managing multi-regional sites says country-code domains give a strong signal that a site is meant for that country, but that Google treats a list of ccTLDs as generic instead (the list "may change"). That list includes .ai. It does not currently include .si, so a .si site aimed at US readers may be read as aimed at Slovenia.

Before You Buy One

1. It's still Slovenia's domain. The registry is run by ARNES, the Academic and Research Network of Slovenia, and the domain has existed since 1992. Anyone can register one; there is no residency requirement.
2. Watch the renewal price. Registrars sell their own promotions, and prices differ. Hostinger lists .si at $11.99 for the first year and $16.99 on renewal, before VAT, as of October 6. One.com quotes £16.99 for the first year and then £28.99 a year. Prices can change.
3. Treat registrar sales copy with care. Hostinger's page says strong short names are still available, unlike .ai, but its own FAQ admits it isn't settled whether SI replaces AI as a term and suggests choosing a name you'd be glad to own either way. Test the availability claim with a search rather than taking it on trust. One.com's explainer makes the opposite point: nothing about .si or its registration rules has changed.
4. Reselling is a crowded bet. If about half of early registrations are already for sale, finding a buyer may be harder than buying was. This is analysis, not investment advice.
5. Buy for a use, not a headline. A name you'd be glad to own even if "SI" never catches on is a safer test than one that only works if it does.

What to Watch

• Real launches. Do established companies or serious startups begin building on .si, or does it stay a resale market?
• Registry statistics. Does the daily pace fall back once the news cycle moves on?
• Renewals. The first renewal cycle for September's names will be the most honest test of demand, and we haven't seen any renewal data.
• The federal definition. If proposed legislative language arrives in late November, does "SI" gain a legal meaning, or does it stay a label for the same technology? Wiley says changes could touch statutes such as the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act and the CHIPS and Science Act.
• Adoption outside Washington. State governments, other countries and the industry itself decide whether "super intelligence" becomes everyday language.

FAQ

Did the US government approve .si domains? No. The order, as law firms summarise it, covers the words federal agencies use, not domain names. The .si domain remains Slovenia's country-code domain, in use since 1992.

Is .si legitimate, and who can register one? Yes. It's an established national domain, and registration is open to anyone worldwide with no residency requirement, according to Hostinger and One.com.

Will .si become the next .ai? Too early to say. The .ai domain's value built up over years of demand from the AI industry. So far .si has had days of demand, and much of it is speculative.

---

Hype-o-meter: Too Soon to Tell

The surge in registrations is real, and so is the executive order behind it. What isn't there yet is evidence that anyone is building on .si. We'd change this verdict if real companies start launching on it, if "super intelligence" spreads well beyond federal agencies, or if demand is still there once the first rush fades.

Sources

• CircleID: .si Registrations Surge After US Shift to 'Super Intelligence'
• Wiley: Executive Order Rebrands AI as "Super Intelligence"
• IAPP: White House directs federal agencies to enter the era of 'super intelligence'
• Anguilla Focus: .ai domain surge brings EC$230m windfall to Anguilla in 2025
• Google Search Central: Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites
• Hostinger: .si domain
• One.com: What is a .si domain?
• IANA: .si delegation record
• IBTimes UK: Trump's Super Intelligence order and the .si domain rush