AI.com was reportedly sold for 70 million USD.

Typedesigner · February 13

AI.com reportedly sold for 70 million USD.

Just two letters: AI.

As a type designer, I find this fascinating. Two characters, maximum meaning. The combination lends itself naturally to distinctive lettering, bold logos, or refined monograms.

It’s also worth noting the historical context: the AI.com domain was originally registered in 1993, when the internet was still in its infancy.

Sources: DomainNameWire, ICANN

George Thomas · February 13

Two type franchise firms may still have been in business in 1993; Alphabet Innovations and A.I. although I don't remember what the A.I. stood for. Either could have owned the domain then except that the franchise business was pretty much dead by 1993.

Typedesigner · February 13

AI was originally associated with Adobe Illustrator, as “Ai” is the program’s typographically designed logo and abbreviation.

Florian Hardwig · February 13

George Thomas said:

I don't remember what the A.I. stood for.

If you were thinking about Peter Fraterdeus’s label, that was Alphabets, Inc. – with an AI prefix for typeface names. His domain name wasn’t half bad either. In fact, much better: alphabets.com. Now for sale.

Daniel Calders · 9:54AM

The oldest recorded copy on the wayback machine shows a company called "Advanced Instruments Corp.® Services" using the domain name in 1996 (https://web.archive.org/web/19961028155350/http://www.ai.com/ ).

AI.com was reportedly sold for 70 million USD.

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