In a move that signals the collision of aggressive crypto-era marketing and the booming artificial intelligence sector, Kris Marszalek, the CEO and co-founder of Crypto.com, has purchased the domain AI.com for a reported $70 million. The acquisition, which sets a new record for publicly disclosed domain sales, is the foundation for a new company also named AI.com. The platform is set to launch officially this Sunday, February 8, 2026, accompanied by a high-profile Super Bowl television commercial.
Marszalek, known for his bold marketing strategies—including the infamous “Fortune Favors the Brave” campaign—is pivoting his attention to what industry insiders call the next phase of the AI revolution: agentic AI. While he will remain CEO of Crypto.com, Marszalek intends to run AI.com as a separate but related venture, positioning it not just as another chatbot, but as a decentralized network of autonomous agents designed to execute complex workflows.
What is the strategy behind the $70 million AI.com purchase?
The $70 million price tag for AI.com shatters previous records for domain acquisitions, surpassing the $30 million paid for Voice.com in 2019. This purchase represents a massive “land grab” for the most definitive digital real estate in the industry. For years, the AI.com domain has had a chaotic history, temporarily redirecting to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and later Elon Musk’s X.ai, likely due to lease agreements or temporary holding patterns. Marszalek’s acquisition secures the asset permanently.
According to reports, this is a calculated branding play intended to bypass the crowded market of AI startups. By owning the category-defining URL, Marszalek aims to establish immediate trust and authority with mainstream consumers who may be overwhelmed by the technical jargon surrounding competitors like Anthropic and OpenAI.
How does the new AI.com platform differ from ChatGPT?
The core distinction of the new AI.com platform is its focus on “agency.” While current Large Language Models (LLMs) like GPT-4 excel at generating text and conversation, AI.com is positioning itself as a consumer-facing “autonomous agent” platform. According to the company’s press release, the software is designed to operate on the user’s behalf—organizing work, sending messages across different apps, and executing trades or building projects without constant human supervision.
Kris Marszalek emphasized this shift, stating, “We are at a fundamental shift in AI’s evolution as we rapidly move beyond basic chats to AI agents actually getting things done for humans.” This aligns with broader industry trends in 2026, where major players like Google (with Project Jarvis) and Anthropic (with Computer Use) are racing to release systems that can control computers directly rather than just offering advice.
ByteWire Analysis: The Pivot from Chat to Action
The launch of AI.com marks a critical inflection point. The era of the novelty chatbot is ending; the era of the digital employee is beginning. However, Marszalek’s entry into this space is viewed with a mix of intrigue and skepticism by Silicon Valley veterans. Unlike the research-heavy labs of OpenAI or DeepMind, Marszalek operates with a consumer-first, marketing-heavy playbook.
The promise of a “decentralized network” where agents can self-improve and share capabilities suggests a Web3-adjacent architecture, hinting at a potential bridge between Marszalek’s crypto roots and his AI ambitions. If successful, this could democratize access to high-level agentic workflows. If it fails, it may be remembered as an expensive vanity project built on a valuable URL.
Is the 2026 Super Bowl signaling an AI market bubble?
The decision to launch via a Super Bowl ad draws immediate parallels to the “Crypto Bowl” of 2022, where multiple cryptocurrency exchanges, including Crypto.com, dominated the airwaves shortly before a significant market downturn. Analysts at Morningstar have noted that “This year’s Super Bowl ads are heavily promoting AI, which may be the only indicator you need of whether AI is a bubble about to burst.”
However, the stakes are different in 2026. The technology driving these agents is more tangible than the speculative assets of the crypto boom. The challenge for AI.com will be delivering a product that matches the hype of its $70 million name. With the Super Bowl acting as the global stage for this reveal, the pressure is on the platform to demonstrate real-world utility immediately upon launch.
What This Means
The acquisition of AI.com by a crypto heavyweight signifies that artificial intelligence has fully transitioned from a technical discipline to a mass-market consumer commodity. For the tech industry, it confirms that 2026 is the year of the “Agent,” where value is measured by tasks completed rather than words generated. For consumers, it means the barrier to entry for using advanced AI tools is about to drop significantly, packaged behind the most intuitive domain name on the internet.
