.qai
Is .qai a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody has applied for .qai in its own right, as of 7 October 2026. Radix named .qai as the replacement string of its .quantum application.
A shorthand for "quantum AI" that few people recognise; most serious projects would still pick .ai, so demand stays thin.
quantum-computing and quantum-machine-learning startups wanting a short, AI-flavoured address, plus a small group of speculators collecting three-letter AI-adjacent strings
No applications recorded for this TLD yet.
The 2012 applications making the most similar bet. Chosen by AI from every string in that round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: a bare three-letter technology acronym that is meaningless to the public and self-evident to one industry, so the string's entire value rests on insiders accepting an abbreviation as the name of the thing they build in.
Same bet on the other reading of an undecodable short initialism — it can only work if a single organization puts its whole corporate identity behind it and supplies from outside the meaning the three letters cannot carry themselves.
Same insider term-of-art structure and the same dependence on a technical abbreviation becoming someone's primary identity, but it names a delivery method owned by operators rather than a capability a whole buyer class would claim, so the pool it bets on is much narrower.
What a .qai domain is
.qai is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under AI & tech. Nobody has applied for .qai in its own right. It is named on ICANN’s list as part of an application for another string.
Is the .qai domain extension real yet?
.qai is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. Nobody has applied for it on the public record; the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round is the process that would decide whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .qai domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .qai name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .qai was .dvr, delegated on 30 September 2016.
Is .qai a real TLD?
Not yet. .qai is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because ICANN’s list names .qai as part of an application for another string. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Radix · first recordedICANN
“RTIS2674T-T87574 · Radix Technologies Inc SEZC · replacement string of .quantum”ICANN
“LFGL2683T-T90578 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-213 PTL2645T-T73740 · Pirin Tablet, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-213 RTIS2674T-T99763 · Radix Technologies Inc SEZC · replacement string of .robotics · Deactivated VIL2659T-T55269 · Verse International Limited · replacement string of .did · Deactivated”ICANN
“Radix has applied for these TLDs; we do not own or operate them today.”Radix
- Band chosen: 10-29 (vanity/narrow). The string .qai most plausibly reads as "quantum AI", but that abbreviation is not yet a widely understood term, and it collides with readings like "QA" (quality assurance) plus a stray letter, so nearly every registrant would have to explain the address. The verified facts show it is filed as a replacement string for .quantum by Radix Technologies Inc SEZC, which signals the operator's own view of it as a fallback rather than a lead product. By analogy, short invented or abbreviated TLDs that lack a pre-existing dictionary meaning have tended to attract speculative and novelty registrations rather than primary identities, while the AI-naming market has consolidated around .ai, which a quantum-AI startup can use without any explanation. It is not in the 30-49 band because there is no evident volume driver: no large buyer group would register .qai names on price alone, and the brand signal is ambiguous rather than merely weak. It is not in the 1-9 band because a real, if tiny, market exists: quantum-plus-AI ventures are a growing sub-sector over the next 5 years, the string is three letters and pronounceable, and a handful of founders would pay for a matching short address. Main market uncertainty: whether "QAI" becomes a recognised industry term for quantum artificial intelligence within 5 years; if it does, the string shifts from needing explanation to carrying a category meaning. Figures on quantum-sector naming demand are unknown; the judgment is from analogy.