Was Trump's 'super intelligence' order a ploy to profit off .si domain names?

A claim that U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to change "artificial intelligence" to "super intelligence" so that he and his associates could profit from the sale of domain names with the top-level domain ".si" circulated in late September 2026 but remains unproven. The rumor stems from a social media thread by independent journalist Adam Cochran, who claimed that a spike in Slovenian domain registrations in May and June 2026, prior to Trump's announcement, indicated collusion. He suggested Trump may have tipped off associates about the coming change in order for them to "domain squat" — to buy a domain at low cost, then resell at a higher value to meet demand. It was true that there was a spike in registration of Slovenian domain names in May and June, followed by a separate spike shortly before the executive order in September. However, Snopes could not independently verify claims that Trump or his associates financially benefited from the domain purchases, or that he told insiders about the "super intelligence" executive order ahead of time. Snopes reached out to Cochran asking him to share his evidence for independent review, as well as to Register.si, Slovenia's domain registrar, to ask if there were any other explanations for the spikes in May and June. We will update this article if we get a response. We also reached out to the White House press office for comment and have not heard back as of this writing. A claim that U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order changing the term "artificial intelligence" to "super intelligence" in order to profit from the sale of domain names with the top-level domain ".si" circulated in late September 2026. People on social media platforms shared the rumor, with some claiming that an "investigation shows that in the past 60 days insiders bought thousands of .si domain names. They've profited hundreds of millions of dollars so far." The ".si" domain is for the country of Slovenia — also the home country of first lady Melania Trump, a detail that appeared to help fuel the rumor — and is typically used for businesses operating from that country. The rumor suggested that Trump tipped off associates so that they could purchase Slovenian domains, sit on them, and then resell at a high markup to companies or individuals looking to expand their web presence to the ".si" top-level domain, a practice called domain squatting. The claim circulated following Trump's Sept. 29, 2026, signing of an executive order demanding that any reference to "artificial intelligence" be instead called "super intelligence" within the U.S. government's executive branch. Trump and tech leaders also signed an accord in an effort to assuage fears over AI, which Snopes previously reported featured a misspelling of "United States." Polls have shown that AI is increasingly unpopular and critics called the move an attempted "rebrand" of AI. Prior to the official documents, Trump had previously posted about "super intelligence" on his Truth Social social media page on Sept. 19. It was true that there was a spike in registration of Slovenian domain names months before the executive order, but Snopes could not independently verify claims that Trump or his associates either financially benefited from the domain purchases or knew about the "super intelligence" executive order ahead of time. The claim originated with a thread on X by independent journalist Adam Cochran. Cochran cited the Slovenian domain registry Register.si, which operates as part of the Academic and Research Network of Slovenia. The organization's website says its mission is ensuring a "stable, secure, uninterrupted and reliable operation of .si in the global digital ecosystem." Register.si's website called the ".si" domain "an internationally recognized top-level domain that represents Slovenia and is the first choice of address on the Internet for all individuals and organizations related to Slovenia." A post on Register.si's website explained the organization does not directly register domains, but rather works "through approximately 90 domestic and foreign registrars." The same post indicated that there had been a spike in registrations and specifically mentioned Trump's "super intelligence" announcement as a possible cause, stating his social media post and resulting "discussion quickly attracted the attention of the public and the technology community, including speculation about the impact of the potential new abbreviation on the Slovenian national domain .si." A graph depicting the number of daily ".si" domain registrations shared by Register.si indicated a jump from fewer than 1,000 registrations on Sept. 20 — one day after Trump posted about "super intelligence" on Truth Social — to over 4,000 on Sept. 23. (Register.si) More broadly, a monthly graph with a range of July 2025 to September 2026 showed a sharp rise from fewer than 2,500 registrations a month to more than 10,000 in September 2026. The graph also showed a spike in May and June 2026, both around 5,000. (Register.si) The spikes in May and June appeared to be Cochran's main evidence that connected the purchases to "Trump's inner circle." While it is possible Trump tipped off associates about the coming change and that they were the individuals who bought up .si domains, a theory is not proof. Snopes can only offer a rating after independently verifying primary evidence; therefore, we have left this claim unrated. Further, "super intelligence" as a term predated Trump's use of it. We reached out to Cochran asking him to share his evidence for independent review, as well as Register.si to ask about any other explanations for the spike in May and June. We will update this article if we get a response. We also reached out to the White House press office for comment and have not heard back, as of this writing. Domain squatting, also called cybersquatting, is nothing new. Typically, it involves parties purchasing a domain that could be confused with an established brand or company, or even a common misspelling or typo of the company's name. Once the new owner has control of the domain, they can then sell it to the company at a higher price than a typical fresh registration. The World Intellectual Property Organization, a United Nations agency that aims to "protect and promote" intellectual property "across borders and acting as a forum for addressing cutting-edge IP issues," reported its highest caseload of domain disputes to date in 2025 with over 6,200. Register.si's website stated that their price "is the same for all registrars and amounts to EUR 10," but that "the final price for domain holders depends on the policy of the individual registrar and Register.si has no influence on it," according to a Google translation. The organization said that speculation about potential earnings for the country of Slovenia because of the increased interest in their domain "have no real basis" and they advised "holders of trademarks, slogans, companies, ... who do not yet have a domain under .si to register it as soon as possible."