ICANN Reveals 1,615 Bids for New Web Endings, With AI Names Most Contested
ICANN has disclosed 1,615 applications for new generic top-level domains from 481 applicants, reopening top-level expansion for the first time in years. A generic top-level domain is the label to the right of the dot, such as .com. The applications were revealed in the New gTLD Program: 2026 Round, after a window that opened on 30 April 2026 and closed on 12 August 2026 at 23:59 UTC. The Verge
Contention is heaviest around AI terminology. Ten companies, including Meta and OpenAI, applied for .agent. Seven companies, including OpenAI, applied for .agi. Six companies, including OpenAI, applied for .asi. Four companies applied for .intelligence. Meta is one of two applicants for .superintelligence.
Those strings are unresolved. Each will require ICANN string contention resolution before any registry can be delegated, or added to the root and put into operation. That puts direct competitors for the same label into the same contention set. It matters for operators because only one registry operator ultimately controls policy, pricing and second-level allocation for a given gTLD.
Volume is concentrated among large platform applicants. OpenAI applied for 15 top-level domains in total. Meta applied for 21. Those totals cover both generic terms and product identifiers, giving both companies parallel tracks in contested generic strings and uncontested brand strings.
Brand protection accounts for a large share of the round. There are 345 brand top-level domain applications in the current batch. Meta applied for .facebook, .instagram, .messenger, .meta, .frommeta, and .threads. The pattern is a closed registry model, where the brand owner holds the root and does not sell second-level names to third parties.
Other AI labs followed the same approach for model and corporate identities. OpenAI applied for .chatgpt, .codex, .openai, and .gpt. Anthropic applied for .anthropic and .claude. Bluesky applied for .bsky. Those strings drew no competing applicants in the disclosed data, which simplifies their path relative to the contested AI generics.
The procedural timeline is now public. ICANN opened the submission window on 30 April 2026. ICANN It closed the window on 12 August 2026 at 23:59 UTC. ICANN ICANN subsequently confirmed the application count proceeding in the round on 22 September 2026 and set out Reveal Day milestones on 29 September 2026, with full application data published on 7 October 2026.
The broader context here for infrastructure operators is the split between contested generics and single-applicant brands. A brand gTLD is mainly about control over resolution, abuse handling and client trust, with DNSSEC, RDAP and registrar integration handled in-house. DNSSEC signs DNS answers to prove they are authentic, while RDAP provides lookup data for registrations. A generic like .agent or .agi is about wholesale registry economics and developer addressing conventions, including who gets priority names and how automation discovers agent endpoints.
In my view, the optimism here is warranted if the focus stays on utility rather than scarcity. New namespaces rarely replace .com usage outright. They succeed when they reduce friction for a specific workflow, such as short, verifiable names for models, agents and product surfaces, with clear registry policy and predictable resolution behavior. For teams planning around agents, the practical point is not to build permanent assumptions on a label that is still contested. Until contention for .agent, .agi, .asi, .intelligence and .superintelligence is resolved, those strings cannot be treated as stable addressing.
