.AI Is Still Growing (and Still Has Room)

Look at the numbers: marketplaces report that .ai now represents a quarter or more of domain revenue. That’s not a gimmick—that’s genuine demand.

Founders choose .ai because it works for them:

• It reinforces their product story.
• It gives them an instant signal of relevance.
• And in some cases, it even makes the pitch stronger.

We expect .ai to continue strong for another 2–3 years as AI seeps deeper into healthcare, finance, logistics, and beyond. But the more interesting thing is not the curve of demand—it’s the normalization of the extension.

At first, .ai was loud—a badge, a declaration. Over time, it will simply feel normal. That’s how real shifts happen.

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We’ve Seen This Before

History repeats itself in branding.

• In the late 90s, the internet boom gave us prefixes like “e-” and “i-”: eTrade, iVillage, eToys.
• These weren’t just labels—they were signals. They said: “We belong to the internet age.”

That’s exactly where .ai sits today. It’s not “just” a TLD. It’s a cultural marker.

Over time, that edge softens. Just as “e-” names stopped sounding futuristic, .ai will eventually stop sounding bold. But that doesn’t make it irrelevant. It makes it a default shorthand for companies building in AI.

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The Bigger Shift: Permission

The real disruption of .ai wasn’t perception—it was permission.

For two decades, founders were told:
👉 If you don’t own the .com, you’re not credible.

So they stretched.
They added prefixes, suffixes, and awkward modifiers. They settled for “get” or “try” versions of their names.

Then .ai showed up and broke the rulebook.

For the first time, founders felt free to step outside .com without losing legitimacy. It wasn’t compromise—it was strategy.

And once that mental barrier falls, it doesn’t come back. Founders now believe they can launch serious companies on non-.coms. That single shift is bigger than the extension itself.

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.com Remains the Endgame

Permission doesn’t mean replacement.

• .com is still the gold standard.
• It remains the most trusted, valuable, and liquid domain extension.
• For global scale, credibility with investors, and defensive brand protection—it’s irreplaceable.

In practice, the path looks like this:

1. Launch on .ai. Ride the signal, gain momentum.
2. Scale. Attract users, revenue, and press.
3. Upgrade to .com. Cement trust, expand internationally, and own the default.

Tesla did it. OpenAI will likely do it. Countless startups are already planning for it.

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Lessons for Domain Investors

This isn’t about chasing short-term waves. It’s about tracking behavioral change.

Founders today want:

• Short, brandable names.
• Clean, simple words that sound like real brands.
• Flexibility in extension—if it adds meaning, even better.

That’s why .ai unlocked something bigger: it proved that non-.coms can be legitimate launchpads. And that means investors should expect a wider pool of viable names over the next decade.

But the math is clear: while non-.coms grow, .com’s value as the endgame asset only increases.

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What Happens Next?

• .ai matures. Growth levels off, but adoption sticks. It stops being a novelty and becomes an accepted default for AI-native businesses.
• Other TLDs rise. Just like .ai signaled AI, we’ll see industry-specific TLDs (like .bio or .health) gain relevance in certain niches.
• Naming creativity expands. Founders no longer see extensions as limitations, but as tools. That opens up fresher, bolder ways of building brands.

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The Namudio Take

At Namudio, we see .ai as a bridge.

• A bridge that gave startups freedom to launch fast.
• A bridge that legitimized creative alternatives.
• A bridge that, paradoxically, reinforced the ultimate value of .com.

Because here’s the truth:
👉 .ai changed the journey, but .com remains the destination.

For brand builders and investors alike, the opportunity isn’t about betting on a single extension. It’s about understanding the psychology of trust, timing your acquisitions, and securing domains that tell stories.

And in that story, .ai will always be remembered as the extension that gave founders permission to think differently.