A 12-fold increase in 6 years! Why are .ai domains becoming increasingly popular?

I checked the latest data for .ai domains a couple of days ago, and the total number of .ai domain registrations worldwide has reached nearly 1.14 million! Looking back at 2020, there were only around 90,000 back then—the growth is absolutely astonishing!

Let's do the math: from 90,000 to 1.14 million, that's a 12-fold increase in just 6 years (more accurately, over 11.6 times, but let's use 12 times)! This isn't just growth; it's the AI ​​wave completely sweeping up the entire domain name market!

But what truly amazes me isn't the explosive increase in registrations, but the massive investment by major players in .ai—after reading this, you'll understand why .ai has become so sought-after!

01

AI Domains! Value Forged in Real Money

Let me show you a few jaw-dropping deals to give you a sense of the sheer value of .ai domains!

The most explosive deal has to be the one in April 2025: Crypto.com founder Kris Marszalek spent $70 million (approximately 500 million+ RMB) to acquire AI.com! This all-cash transaction, when made public in February 2026, immediately broke the global record for publicly traded domain names, surpassing the previous record of Voice.com ($30 million) by 40%!

Besides this, other .ai domains have also seen frequent high-priced transactions: Lotus.ai sold for $400,000, and Bot.ai soared to $1.2 million (Sedo's latest record for 2026)!

Escrow.com's data is even more striking: In 2025, the total transaction value of .ai domains surged from $9.4 million in 2024 to $27.1 million, nearly tripling! Buyers weren't just looking for bargains; they were pouring real money into AI!

Even more outrageous is the secondary market in 2025: transaction value increased by 189%, exceeding $10.3 million in Q4 alone, setting a new record!

02

Unicorns and major companies are all aligning themselves! .ai becomes the "identity card" of the AI ​​industry

Now, who in the AI ​​field isn't using .ai as their primary domain? This is no longer a question of "choosing" or "not choosing," it's a "must-use" necessity!

Let's look at the unicorn team:

x.ai (Elon Musk's xAI company website)

Perplexity.ai (the wildly popular AI search tool)

Claude.ai (Anthropic chatbot)

Jasper.ai (the leading AI writing tool)

Character.ai (an AI character chat platform)

Stability.ai (the pioneer of Stable Diffusion image editing)...

These AI companies, valued at billions or even tens of billions, almost unanimously use .ai as their main website!

Perplexity.ai boasts over 102.7 million monthly visits, with a direct visit rate as high as 74%, clearly bringing its own traffic;

Character.ai saw a 300% surge in users within six months of adopting .ai and successfully secured $200 million in funding—all thanks to the .ai domain!

And the big companies need no introduction: Google, Meta, and Microsoft stockpiled a bunch of .ai domains years ago, and OpenAI also primarily uses openai.com to build a strong competitive advantage!

Why is everyone so familiar with it?

Because the two letters ".ai" speak volumes—the moment a user clicks in, they know, "This is about AI!" It's youthful, tech-savvy, and instantly elevates the brand's image!

Previously, there was concern about .com market saturation; now, .ai has become the "hard currency" of the AI ​​world. Using it is like declaring, "We are legitimate AI players, not just jumping on the bandwagon!"

03

The Craze is Accelerating! From "Optional" to "Essential"

The AI ​​craze shows no signs of stopping! .ai has completely transformed from a niche ccTLD into a "digital business card" for the AI ​​era!

Maximum User Engagement: Renewal rate as high as 90%, deletion rate only 1.25%, indicating that once purchased, users are reluctant to discard it—a true "long-term asset"!

Maximum Industry Penetration: Over 60% of the world's top 50 AI startups use .ai as their website suffix; AI tools have penetrated coding, sales, healthcare, and law. Using .ai instantly grabs attention, making it easier to find traffic and investors!

Maximum Growth Momentum: Registrations in 2025 increased by 78% year-on-year—the growth trend is unstoppable!

Maximum SEO Boost: Search engines give .ai higher relevance weights; many websites using .ai saw their DA score soar from 12 to 58 in just six months!

The global market is booming: North America accounts for 42% of the market share, while Asia Pacific is the fastest-growing region with an annual growth rate of 35%, and is expected to surpass North America by 2026!

To put it simply, the popularity of .ai isn't just because it's cheap to register (although it does cost only a few tens of dollars a year, making it accessible to ordinary users), but because it now represents a sense of the future and professionalism! Large companies are paying high prices for it, and unicorns are using it en masse, directly elevating .ai to a prestigious status.

✨ In conclusion

This wave of .ai popularity is just the beginning, far from over! In the future, with the continued explosive growth of the global AI industry, the scarcity and value of high-quality .ai domains will only increase further, and the real benefits are just beginning to be realized.

If you want to invest in the AI ​​sector and connect with scarce, high-quality .ai domains, contact the DN team for professional assistance in seizing this era's opportunities!