Rumor: Adam Cochran alleges Trump-linked insiders bought .si domains before SI rename

Unconfirmed. Independent journalist Adam Cochran alleges that insiders linked to the Trump administration bought up .si domain names before the president's executive order renaming AI as Super Intelligence, and cashed in. Protos reported the claims. The insider link is unproven.

What Cochran says

Cochran says he spotted a spike in .si registrations across June and July, ahead of the SI rebrand announcement on September 19. He says he found 12,000 of these domains registered before the announcement, and that before July "95% of all .si domains had been non-English."

AI- and MAGA-related .si domains, per the Protos report, were bought for tens of thousands of dollars and then listed for millions. One re-listed domain, Build.si, is on offer for over $14 million.

Cochran says these buyers were not typical squatters bulk-buying common words. He says they were buying "overpriced aftermarket domains which started to sell around the same time." On social media he went further: "Insiders seem to have profited MILLIONS off of .si domain names before his Truth Social posts." He also expects federal agencies and AI companies to buy .si names to appease Trump.

What is known, and what is not

The executive order is real, and so is the rename. The order argues that AI is an outdated term that could not foresee the technology's ability to "amplify human ingenuity and unlock new forms of creativity."

The rest is open. We do not know who bought the 12,000 domains. We do not know whether any documented evidence ties the purchases to the Trump family or administration insiders. A listing price is also not a sale price, and the reporting does not say Build.si has sold.

Disclosure

GEN registered goldenera.si on October 7, 2026, after the executive order, at the registrar's regular price. We were late to the party and paid sticker.

So: a spike, a theory and a very large asking price.