When US President Donald Trump told the UN General Assembly that “artificial intelligence” sounded “fake” and that his administration would adopt the term “super intelligence” (SI), he probably didn't expect to become an inadvertent promoter of Slovenia's internet infrastructure. But that's exactly what happened.
Since Trump's speech, registrations for .si domains — the country-code top-level domain for Slovenia — have exploded. Register.si, the Ljubljana-based registry that manages the suffix, reported an average of 3,700 new domains per day in the days following the address. That compares with roughly 3,500 for the entire month of August. By Tuesday, the total number of active .si domains had surpassed 220,000.
“Since the speech, there has been a strong but stable increase of requests for the use of the '.si' domain,” said Klara Herman, a spokeswoman for Register.si. The surge appears to be driven by tech entrepreneurs, startups, and speculators eager to secure short, memorable web addresses that now carry a double meaning: the country code for Slovenia and the acronym for “super intelligence.”
An unexpected windfall for a small Alpine nation
Slovenia, a country of about 2.1 million people, is not accustomed to being at the centre of a global digital land grab. The .si suffix was originally intended to signal that a website originates from the small Central European nation, known for its Alpine scenery and its capital's medieval old town. But the recent spike has turned the domain into a hot commodity for an international audience.
In a statement on its website, Register.si “strongly recommends to holders of trademarks, slogans, company names and others who do not yet own a .si domain that they register one as soon as possible.” The warning reflects the fear that cybersquatters might snap up valuable names, a concern that has already materialised in other domain markets.
This isn't the first time a Balkan country's domain suffix has gained global appeal. Montenegro's .me has long been used for personal websites and calls to action — think of Telegram's t.me short link. The .si boom, however, is more sudden and more directly tied to a single political statement.
Trump's remarks, made during his address to the UN General Assembly, were part of a broader push to rebrand artificial intelligence. “The word 'artificial intelligence' makes it sound fake,” he said, adding that “super intelligence” sounded “much better.” He announced that the US would use the term in official documents, a move that has already stirred debate in tech circles.
The timing is notable, coming just as the EU is finalising its own AI regulations. The upcoming dinner between Trump and the CEO of Anthropic suggests that AI policy remains a contentious issue on both sides of the Atlantic. For European startups, the .si domain could become a clever branding tool, especially those working on AI and machine learning.
But the rush also raises practical questions. Register.si, a non-profit organisation, has seen its infrastructure tested by the influx. “We are monitoring the situation closely,” Herman said, adding that the registry is working to ensure stability and prevent abuse.
For Slovenia, the attention is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it puts the country on the map for tech entrepreneurs. On the other, it risks turning the national domain into a playground for speculators, potentially driving up prices and making it harder for legitimate Slovenian businesses to secure their own names.
As the world watches the fallout from Trump's linguistic innovation, one thing is clear: the .si domain has become an unexpected symbol of the intersection between geopolitics and the digital economy. Whether the surge will last remains to be seen, but for now, Slovenia is enjoying its fifteen minutes of fame in the global tech ecosystem.
