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Slovenia’s .si domain saw a sharp rise in registrations in September and early October 2026, as “SI” gained attention in U.S. political discussion of “super intelligence.” The increase followed President Donald Trump’s September 22 remarks at the UN and a September 29 executive order—but it was already underway before those events drew wider attention. The figures show a surge; they do not prove that Trump’s comments alone caused it.
Why are .si domains suddenly popular?
The overlap is linguistic: .si is Slovenia’s country-code top-level domain, while “SI” was used as shorthand for “Super Intelligence” in Trump’s remarks and subsequent White House messaging. That coincidence made Slovenian web addresses newly conspicuous to people following the U.S. discussion.
On September 22, 2026, Trump used “super intelligence” and “SI” in remarks at the UN General Assembly. On September 29, the White House said he had signed an executive order directing terminology changes within the federal executive branch. The White House described the order as applying to federal executive-branch departments and agencies, and said it directs the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology to propose a federal definition of “Super Intelligence” and “SI.” It was not a universal renaming of AI or a change to technical definitions worldwide. The White House fact sheet gives the administration’s account of the order and its scope.
What do the registration figures show?
The numbers vary by date and measurement method. Register.si’s public counter is live, while Netcraft also made dated observations and used its own internet-survey data for hourly comparisons because the .si registry is not obligated to publish zone files.
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| Observation | Reported figure | What it represents |
|---|---|---|
| September 23, 2026 | 4,794 domains in the previous 24 hours; 3,515 in the previous month; 198,535 total | Register.si counter figures reproduced by Netcraft in its September 24 analysis. |
| October 1, 2026 | 13,603 domains in the previous 24 hours | Netcraft reported this was nearly three times its September 23 24-hour snapshot. |
| Eight-day comparison, reported October 1, 2026 | 21.6% increase in total .si domains | Netcraft’s comparison of its dated observations. |
| September versus August 2026 | About 13 times as many new registrations in September | Netcraft’s calculation based on the registry counters it cited. |
| Register.si counter at access on October 2, 2026 | 260,534 total domains; 46,066 new domains in the previous month; 12,578 in the previous 24 hours; 92 registrars | Live English-language counter values at the time of access, not a settled daily total; the counter updates continuously. |
The dated counter snapshots are not contradictory simply because their totals differ: each captures a changing registry at a different time. Netcraft’s hourly trend estimates are also distinct from the values displayed on Register.si’s live counter. Its October 1 update reported that activity more than doubled after the September 29 order compared with the average daily rate between the UN remarks and the order, and that OpusDNS accounted for the sharp acceleration it detected. These are observations of timing and volume, not evidence of individual registrants’ motives. See Netcraft’s September 24 analysis and its October 1 update for the dated comparisons and methodology caveat.
Did Trump’s comments cause the surge?
The chronology does not support attributing the whole increase to the speech or order. Netcraft’s September 24 analysis said the initial spike appeared to have begun roughly three days before the September 22 UN remarks, around the time of a September 19 Trump social-media poll about a possible AI rename. It said it could not determine whether domain buyers anticipated an announcement or registered for unrelated reasons.
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ARNES spokesperson Klara Herman told Foreign Policy on September 28: “We would, however, be careful about attributing the entire increase to President Trump’s comments. The upward trend was already there before the recent attention around ‘SI,’” and, “What we can say is that the international discussion around the term has coincided with an exceptional additional surge in interest.” The distinction matters: the timing indicates that attention coincided with additional activity, but does not establish why any person registered a particular name.
What does .si mean, and how do registrations work?
.si is Slovenia’s country-code domain. People obtain names through registrars, which act as intermediaries between the registrant and the registry; Register.si does not sell names directly to end users. The official registry lists the registration rules, renewal details, Registry Lock option and Alternative Domain Dispute Resolution (ADR) process at Register.si.
- A name must be available and not reserved, use permitted characters, contain 2–63 characters, and not start or end with a hyphen or contain two consecutive hyphens in the third and fourth positions.
- Domains may be renewed for one to five years.
- Foreign Policy reported in September 2026 that the registry charged registrars €10 per registration, while each registrar set its own retail price. It also reported Hostinger prices of $11.99 for the first year and $16.99 thereafter at the time of publication. These are dated examples, not guaranteed or current prices; check a registrar’s live terms before buying.
- Netcraft reported that anyone can register a .si domain, including people outside Slovenia. The registry page reviewed here does not itself state that eligibility rule explicitly.
Does registering a name protect it from a dispute?
No. Registration does not automatically defeat another party’s trademark or other rights. Register.si says that a party claiming a stronger right can initiate ADR, and that a domain name itself is not an industrial-property right. Registry Lock is also available as a registry option, but it does not turn a registration into proof of ownership of a brand.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Are the new registrations a cybersecurity threat?
A resale listing is not, by itself, proof of infringement or fraud. Netcraft reported that more than 50% of the .si domains it detected as registered at Dynadot between the September 19 social-media poll and Trump’s UN remarks were listed on Dynadot’s aftermarket when it checked on September 23. That is a limited sample from one registrar and period, not a finding about all new .si registrations.
Netcraft’s October 1 follow-up also reported a cluster of 87 .com domains combining known brand names with “superintelligence,” registered before the executive order and offered for resale. At that publication, it said it had not seen an increase in malicious content such as phishing around the rename. Netcraft also noted a potential typo risk: “s” and “a” sit next to one another on QWERTY keyboards, so someone intending to type a .ai address could mistype it as .si. That is a possible avenue for confusion, not evidence that these registrations are malicious.
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