Slovenia’s .si domain registrations surge amid Trump’s push to rename AI

Slovenia’s .si domain registry listed 46,066 registrations in the previous month on 1 October, amid US President Donald Trump’s push to call artificial intelligence ‘super intelligence’, or ‘SI’. The matching initials have drawn attention to Slovenian website addresses, though the registry cautions that Trump’s remarks may not explain every registration.

The registry’s live homepage also showed 241,763 .si domains in total and 13,558 registrations in the preceding 24 hours when it was retrieved on 1 October. Those figures are a snapshot of a changing website, rather than a fixed monthly report. They show how quickly the registry’s displayed totals were moving at the time of the latest check.

How large is the rise in .si registrations?

Klara Herman, a spokesperson for Slovenia’s national registry, told the BBC that about 44,000 .si addresses were bought in September, compared with fewer than 2,000 in August. She said 11,000 new registrations were recorded on 30 September and described the scale of activity late in the month as ‘unprecedented’ compared with the previous year.

Those BBC figures differ from other reported counts. Domain Name Wire put August registrations at 3,515, while the registry’s live homepage displayed 46,066 registrations for the previous month when checked on 1 October. The available records do not establish why the figures differ, so each should be read as the count attributed to its source and measurement point.

Why Trump’s proposed name points to Slovenia

The .si ending is Slovenia’s national internet domain suffix. Trump has urged use of ‘super intelligence’ and its initials, SI, in place of ‘artificial intelligence’ and AI. The overlap gives .si addresses a possible appeal beyond their connection to Slovenia: the same two letters can now evoke the terminology promoted by the US president.

According to the BBC, Trump argued in his UN General Assembly remarks that ‘the use of the word artificial makes it sound fake’. The BBC also reported that an executive order signed on Tuesday directed US departments and agencies to use ‘SI’ and ‘Super Intelligence’ in official correspondence, websites, reports and other communications. That reported directive concerns government language; it does not establish why individual domain buyers acted.

Register.si itself says registrations have increased in recent months and that discussion of a new name for artificial intelligence has also stimulated interest in .si in recent days. Herman told the BBC that September stood out clearly from other months, while cautioning against attributing the entire increase solely to Trump’s comments.

What independent domain analysis found

Security company Netcraft examined domain registrations around the naming discussion. It said the initial rise appeared to begin roughly three days before Trump’s UN remarks, around the time of a social media poll about renaming AI. Netcraft said it could not determine whether those earlier buyers anticipated an announcement or were responding to unrelated factors.

Netcraft also found evidence consistent with speculative buying. About 52% of the .si domains it detected as registered through Dynadot between the poll on 19 September and the UN remarks were listed on Dynadot’s aftermarket when Netcraft checked on 23 September. That finding applies to the domains Netcraft detected in that registrar and time window; it is not a measure of all .si registrations.

Listings on a resale marketplace show that some buyers offered domains to others, but they do not show that those domains sold or what every buyer intended. Netcraft identified names listed after being registered ahead of the remarks, including superintell.si. The observed pattern gives a concrete reason speculative buying is being discussed, without proving that it drove the full surge.

What the registry says domain holders should know

Register.si’s website explains that people obtain .si domains through registrars, which act as intermediaries between the customer and the national registry. Euronews reported that the registry urged holders of trademarks, slogans and company names who lacked a matching .si domain to register one promptly. The advice reflects the possibility that a desired address may be taken during a period of heavy demand.

The registry’s displayed total and its preceding 24-hour count can change as registrations continue. For now, the evidence establishes a sharp increase in .si activity and a naming overlap with Trump’s preferred term. It leaves open how many buyers acted because of that term, how many were speculating, and why the reported monthly baselines do not match.