.quantum
Is .quantum a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.quantum is contested: 4 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are Kingfish, Identity Digital, Radix and Link Freedom Group. XYZ Registry named .quantum as a backup string for its .project application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. Evolving Petroleum Holdings named .quantum as a backup string for its .oil application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. EchoStar named .quantum as a backup string for its .login application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
Who is applying, and what they run today
Two of the four already run TLDs, 25.23M names between them. Kingfish and Link Freedom Group run none.
Will names sell?
A niche address for quantum-tech startups; strong futuristic branding, but a small buyer pool that mostly defaults to .com or .ai.
Last round the AI scored the 2012 strings blind to their fate. Strings it scored 60 or more hold a median 27,168 names today; those under 30, a median of 30. .quantum’s closest 2012 strings hold .cloud 552K, .analytics 4 and .science 12K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .cloud, held 551,867 names, June 2026. .analytics held 4; .science held 12,113. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: the frontier-computing buzzword of its moment turned into an open generic namespace, wagering that a paradigm-shift technology term pulls primary identity from vendors, labs and consultancies who want to claim the paradigm itself.
Same bet: an emerging deep-tech field noun whose registrant pool is a narrow, well-capitalized set of firms that brand on the discipline, so the value case rests on credibility with a small industry rather than volume.
Same bet: an abstract research-domain noun anchored on universities, labs and institutes putting their identity on the field, though broader and less commercially charged than one named technology.
Where they meet elsewhere
Identity Digital and XYZ Registry face each other in 77 contests this round, .quantum included.
- Identity Digital × XYZ Registry
- Identity Digital × Link Freedom Group
- XYZ Registry × Link Freedom Group
- Identity Digital × Radix
- Link Freedom Group × Radix
quantum computing and deep-tech startups, research labs and photonics/sensing ventures, plus tech brands that use 'quantum' as a marketing word and want a matching suffix.
What a .quantum domain is
.quantum is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our AI & tech category. 4 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .quantum domain extension real yet?
.quantum is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. It is a string applicants have put forward in the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, the process that decides whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .quantum domain?
You can’t yet. A .quantum name can only be registered once the string is delegated (added to the DNS root) and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .quantum was .cloud, delegated on 26 June 2015.
Is .quantum a real TLD?
Not yet. .quantum is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .quantum is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- 3 applicants · first recordedICANN
- 2 applicants · first recordedICANN
- 2 applicants · now confirmedICANN
- Radix · first recordedRadix
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
The source’s 7 linesHide the lines
BPL2623T-T84050 · Bird Pepper, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-197 EDCL2689T-T27113 · ECHO Domain Co L.L.C. · replacement string of .login · Deactivated EPH2629T-T64575 · Evolving Petroleum Holdings · replacement string of .oil · Deactivated LFGL2683T-T77631 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-197 RTIS2674T-T87574 · Radix Technologies Inc SEZC · primary · contention set 2026-197 SL2630T-T63434 · Steelhead LLC · primary · contention set 2026-197 XL2625T-T48100 · XYZ.COM LLC · replacement string of .project · Deactivated
The source’s 4 linesHide the lines
BPL2623T-T84050 · Bird Pepper, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-197 LFGL2683T-T77631 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-197 RTIS2674T-T87574 · Radix Technologies Inc SEZC · primary · contention set 2026-197 SL2630T-T63434 · Steelhead LLC · primary · contention set 2026-197
“Radix has applied for these TLDs; we do not own or operate them today.”Radix
“.quantum · AI & Tech · “Where the impossible becomes possible.””Link Freedom Group
- Band: 30-49, usable but limited. The word carries genuine cachet in tech branding and the quantum sector is widely treated as a growth area, so some real registrations and a handful of primary-identity uses over the next 5 years are plausible. It is not in the 50-69 band because the pool of quantum-focused companies is small relative to sectors that made suffix TLDs work, and by analogy the field's established players and funded startups have tended to build identity on .com or short incumbent endings, so sustained primary-identity demand is unproven and would need explaining. It is not in the 10-29 band because demand is tied to a durable industry theme rather than a joke or one-off event, and the string reads as a credible descriptor rather than pure vanity. By analogy with descriptive tech-word TLDs, the likely pattern is price-driven volume plus defensive and marketing registrations, with a thin aftermarket concentrated in a few dictionary-word second levels. The word's broad metaphorical use in marketing (quantum leap framing) widens the buyer pool slightly but dilutes the brand signal. Applicant context, stated neutrally from the verified facts: the applicant filed more than 300 strings in the round and lists this one under 'AI & Tech'; a large-portfolio applicant may market any single string less intensively than a single-TLD registry would, which tempers adoption expectations without changing the string's intrinsic merit. Main market uncertainty: whether quantum computing commercialization produces a startup wave dense enough within 5 years to make a sector-suffix identity fashionable the way it became for AI companies (analogy, not asserted with figures).