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The Real AI.com Story the Media Ignored: An $11M Domain Flip to $70M, Not a 10-Year-Old’s $100 Bet in 1993
On February 6, 2026, domain broker Larry Fischer publicly disclosed that AI.com had been sold for $70 million in cryptocurrency to Kris Marszalek, CEO of Crypto.com. The seller was identified as Arsyan Ismail, a Malaysian tech entrepreneur. Within days, media outlets across the world ran a compelling narrative: a 10-year-old Malaysian boy had bought the domain in 1993 for just $100 using his mother’s credit card, held it for over 30 years, and sold it for $70 million.
This narrative is demonstrably false. A review of publicly available records — including Wayback Machine archives, WHOIS transfer logs, domain industry reporting from 2021, and independent research by domain investigators George Kirikos and Bill Patterson — reveals that AI.com passed through multiple owners over three decades. Arsyan Ismail acquired the domain in September 2021 from Future Media Architects (FMA), a Kuwaiti-owned domain holding company, via the brokerage SAW.com. The asking price at the time was $11 million.
This report documents the verifiable ownership timeline of AI.com from its registration on May 4, 1993 through its $70 million sale in April 2025, identifies the critical falsehoods in the viral narrative, and presents the evidence that contradicts the “$100 in 1993” origin story.
The Viral Narrative vs. The Facts
What the Media Reported
Between February 7–11, 2026, dozens of major media outlets published variations of the same story. The key claims were:
Claim 1: Arsyan Ismail bought AI.com in 1993 at the age of 10 for $100 using his mother’s credit card.
Claim 2: He chose the domain because “AI” matched his initials.
Claim 3: He held the domain continuously for over 30 years. Claim 4: He sold it for $70 million to Kris Marszalek in April 2025.
These claims were reported without independent verification by outlets including Malay Mail, SAYS, Sinar Daily, Cryptopolitan, PANews, ChainCatcher, South Asia Index (X/Twitter), Scoop Malaysia, and numerous international crypto/tech publications. The story went viral globally.
Why the 1993 Story Cannot Be True
The Internet in 1993
AI.com’s registration date of May 4, 1993 is public record and undisputed. However, the claim that a 10-year-old in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia bought this domain on that date using a credit card is historically impossible for multiple reasons:
- The World Wide Web had barely launched. The WWW became publicly available on April 30, 1993 — just five days before AI.com was registered. The first graphical web browser (Mosaic) was released in the same year. The internet in 1993 consisted primarily of bulletin boards, newsgroups, and FTP servers.
- Online credit card transactions did not exist. The first online credit card transaction reportedly occurred in August 1994 (or possibly late 1993 by one account). Formal approval for online credit card processing came in 1996. CVV security codes were not introduced until 1997. It was technically impossible to “buy a domain with a credit card” online in May 1993.
- Domains before 1995 were free. Domain name registration before 1995 was administered by the InterNIC and was free of charge. The $100/year registration fee was only introduced in September 1995 by Network Solutions. You did not “pay $100” to register a domain in 1993 — registration was free but required a legitimate organizational affiliation and technical infrastructure (dedicated DNS servers, permanent internet connection).
- Malaysia had virtually no internet in 1993. JARING (Joint Advanced Research Integrated Networking), Malaysia’s first internet access provider, was only established in 1992. Commercial dial-up internet access in Malaysia did not become available until 1995. A 10-year-old in Kuala Lumpur in May 1993 would have had no practical means of accessing domain registration services.
- Domain registration required organizational credentials. In 1993, registering a .com domain required submitting administrative and technical contact information, including an organization name, dedicated nameservers, and IP addresses. This was not a process accessible to individual consumers, much less a child.
Verified Ownership Timeline of AI.com
It is impressive what one story that is not fact-checked by SAYS can bring you. This is how misinformation spreads.
— Colin Charles (@bytebot) February 10, 2026
Misinformation that hit The Malay Mail, NST, BFM, Berita Harian, and more.
The evidence presented was a poor AI video, and the domain registra, Squarespace did… https://t.co/ZfPfwdUeuI pic.twitter.com/8pu7tP5BrR
The following timeline is reconstructed from Wayback Machine (archive.org) snapshots, WHOIS transfer records, domain industry publications, and independent research.
| Date / Period | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| May 4, 1993 | AI.com is registered. Original registrant believed to be a US-based corporation (likely Advanced Instruments Corp, Norwood, MA, based on 1996 archive snapshots). | Public WHOIS |
| 1993–1996 | Domain serves as website for Advanced Instruments Corporation (Massachusetts-based analytical instruments company). Later moved to aicompanies.com. | Archive.org |
| Early 2000s | Domain acquired by Future Media Architects (FMA), founded in 2002 by Thunayan Khalid Al-Ghanim. Added to large premium domain portfolio. | Wikipedia (FMA); DNJournal |
| 2003–2014 | FMA amasses 120,000+ domains including media.com, cool.com, ibiza.com, fm.com, and AI.com. Known for never selling domains during this period. | OnlineDomain.com; TLDInvestors interview |
| Oct 2014 | FMA transfers 100,000+ domains to Uniregistry (Frank Schilling’s registrar). Sales inquiries handled by Uniregistry brokers. | OnlineDomain.com (Oct 2014) |
| June 30, 2016 | Archive snapshot shows AI.com serving generic FMA page. FMA begins reversing no-sell policy and offloading domains. | Archive.org; NamePros (Feb 2019) |
| Feb 2019 | NamePros lists AI.com among “Top 10 Domains Owned by Future Media Architects.” | NamePros Blog |
| Mar 2019 | Thunayan Al-Ghanim removed as FMA officer after litigation; Shareefah Khalid Al-Ghanim takes control. | DomainGang; Court records |
| Sep 29, 2021 | AI.com sold by FMA via SAW.com brokerage. Asking price: $11M. Reported buyer “someone in the NFT space.” Domain transferred to Google registrar. | DomainInvesting.com (Sep 29, 2021) |
| Feb 2023 | AI.com redirects to ChatGPT. Media speculates OpenAI purchased it (~$11M). No confirmation; actual owner redirecting traffic. | Mashable; AI Business; TechCrunch |
| Aug 2023 | George Kirikos identifies Arsyan Ismail as owner via Cloudflare DNS analysis. | DomainGang (Aug 7, 2023) |
| Aug 2023 | AI.com redirects from ChatGPT to X.ai (Elon Musk’s AI company). Media speculates Musk purchase. | TechCrunch (Aug 3, 2023) |
| Nov 2023 | Redirects to X’s Grok AI chatbot landing page. | Android Police (2024) |
| Feb 2024 | Briefly redirects to MKBHD YouTube AI video, then to Google Gemini (Feb 29). | Android Police (Mar 2024) |
| Jan 2025 | Redirects to DeepSeek following viral growth. | Oreate AI Blog |
| Mar 2025 | Listed for sale via GetYourDomain.com (Larry Fischer) at $100M asking price. | GetYourDomain press release |
| Apr 2025 | Sold to Kris Marszalek (Crypto.com CEO) for $70M (crypto deal). Brokered by Larry Fischer. Seller: Arsyan Ismail. | PR Newswire; Financial Times; Larry Fischer LinkedIn |
| Feb 6, 2026 | Larry Fischer publicly discloses sale. Marszalek announces purchase on X. | PR Newswire; X (@kris) |
| Feb 8, 2026 | AI.com launches as agentic AI platform during Super Bowl LX with 30-second ad. Site crashes from traffic surge. | Tom’s Hardware |
Key Evidence
The SAW.com Sale Record (September 2021)
The most critical piece of evidence is the contemporaneous September 29, 2021 report by Elliot Silver on DomainInvesting.com, one of the most authoritative domain industry publications. Silver wrote: “This morning in my Domain Monitor alert email from DomainTools, I noticed that AI.com had transferred from Uniregistry to Google [registrar]. AI.com had been owned by Future Media Architects (FMA), and the domain name now has Whois privacy enabled.”
Silver contacted SAW.com’s Jeff Gabriel and Amanda Waltz, who confirmed the sale. The asking price was $11 million. Gabriel described the buyer as “someone in the NFT space.” This is entirely consistent with Arsyan Ismail’s known profile as a crypto/NFT enthusiast and early Bitcoin adopter.
This means Arsyan Ismail purchased AI.com in September 2021 — not May 1993. He bought it from FMA for approximately $11 million, not $100.
The Cloudflare DNS Evidence (August 2023)
In August 2023, domain researcher George Kirikos identified Arsyan Ismail as the likely owner of AI.com through DNS analysis. He observed that AI.com used the Cloudflare nameserver pair pam.ns.cloudflare.com and pete.ns.cloudflare.com — one pair out of 2,500 possible combinations. Other domains known to be owned by Arsyan Ismail shared the exact same DNS pair, assigned around the same time in 2021.
Bill Patterson then corroborated this finding with additional evidence: both SAW.com co-founders (Jeff Gabriel and Amanda Waltz) followed the @arsyan account on Twitter, further linking Arsyan to the 2021 transaction.
The Archive.org Evidence
Wayback Machine snapshots provide direct evidence of different owners over the decades. A 1996 snapshot shows AI.com serving content for Advanced Instruments Corporation — a real Massachusetts-based analytical instruments company. This company now operates at aicompanies.com.
The June 30, 2016 snapshot (referenced by the user) shows AI.com under FMA’s control. NamePros confirmed AI.com was part of FMA’s portfolio in a February 2019 article listing it among FMA’s top 10 domains alongside media.com and cool.com.
Between 2020 and 2021, the domain showed HTTP 301/302 redirect behavior, and after the 2021 sale, the new owner (Arsyan) began the pattern of playful redirects to various AI platforms.
The “Redirect Trolling” Pattern (2023–2025)
A key piece of evidence that major media outlets missed is the redirect pattern. After the 2021 acquisition, the owner of AI.com engaged in deliberate, playful redirects: ChatGPT (Feb 2023), X.ai/Grok (Aug 2023, Nov 2023), an MKBHD video (Feb 2024), Google Gemini (Feb 2024), DeepSeek (Jan 2025). At no point did OpenAI, Google, Elon Musk, or any other company own the domain. The NamePros community noted this explicitly: “ai.com currently redirects to Google’s Gemini. There’s no record of ai.com ever having been owned by OpenAI, X, or any other company.”
Critical Contradictions in the Seller’s Account
- Credit card purchase in 1993: Online credit card transactions were not possible in May 1993. The first such transaction occurred in late 1993 or August 1994 at the earliest. The $100 fee for domain registration did not exist until September 1995.
- Malaysian internet access in 1993: Commercial internet was not available in Malaysia until 1995. JARING was established in 1992 but served primarily academic institutions, not 10-year-old children.
- Domain registration process in 1993: The InterNIC registration process required organizational affiliation, technical contacts, and operational DNS infrastructure. It was not a consumer self-service process.
- Continuous ownership claim vs. FMA records: If Arsyan owned AI.com since 1993, it would not have appeared in FMA’s portfolio for nearly two decades, would not have been listed on SAW.com for sale, and would not have been tracked as an FMA asset by domain industry publications throughout the 2000s and 2010s.
5. The DomainInvesting.com contemporaneous record: Elliot Silver’s September 2021 report, written at the time of the sale with direct confirmation from the broker, identifies FMA as the seller. This was recorded in real-time, years before the $70 million sale made the domain newsworthy to mainstream media.
What Actually Happened
Based on all available evidence, the most likely ownership chain of AI.com is:
1993–Early 2000s: AI.com was registered by or on behalf of Advanced Instruments Corporation, a US company. Domain registration was free in this era and required organizational credentials.
Early 2000s–2021: The domain was acquired by Future Media Architects (FMA), the Kuwaiti-owned domain holding company founded by Thunayan Al-Ghanim in 2002. FMA held it as part of a massive 120,000+ domain portfolio. By 2019, FMA was under new management (Shareefah Al-Ghanim) following internal litigation.
September 2021: FMA sold AI.com through SAW.com brokerage to Arsyan Ismail for approximately $11 million (likely in cryptocurrency, given Arsyan’s profile as a crypto/NFT investor).
2023–2025: Arsyan engaged in playful redirects to various AI platforms, generating media attention. None of the redirect targets (OpenAI, xAI, Google) owned the domain.
March 2025: AI.com was listed for sale at $100 million via GetYourDomain.com (Larry Fischer).
April 2025: Kris Marszalek purchased AI.com for $70 million in cryptocurrency. The deal was brokered by Larry Fischer.
February 2026: The sale was publicly disclosed. Arsyan Ismail was identified as the seller. The “bought for $100 in 1993” narrative began circulating, propagated first by SAYS (Malaysia) based on Arsyan’s own account, and then picked up globally without verification.
Conclusions
The story of a 10-year-old Malaysian boy buying AI.com for $100 in 1993 is a compelling narrative — but it collapses under even basic scrutiny. The technological, historical, and documentary evidence all point to the same conclusion: Arsyan Ismail purchased AI.com in September 2021 from Future Media Architects for approximately $11 million. He then sold it in April 2025 for $70 million — a roughly 6x return in under four years.
That is still a remarkable investment and a significant achievement. But it is not the fairy tale of a child’s $100 investment turning into $70 million over three decades.
The widespread media failure to fact-check this story — despite easily available contradicting evidence — raises important questions about the state of technology journalism and the uncritical amplification of feel-good narratives in the age of viral content.
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