Did Malaysian entrepreneur buy AI.com for ₹300? Viral claim debunked

A viral claim that a Malaysian entrepreneur bought the domain AI.com for ₹300 as a child and later sold it for ₹643 crore has been proven false. While the domain was indeed sold for $70 million in April 2025, the story of a 10-year-old purchasing it in 1993 using his mother’s credit card does not hold up to scrutiny.

Malaysian entrepreneur Arysan Ismail sold AI.com to Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek for $70 million (approximately ₹634 crore). The deal gained widespread attention when the domain was relaunched during Super Bowl LX as part of a new “agentic AI” platform. The scale of the transaction sparked online speculation about the domain’s origins.

Social media posts claimed that Ismail had registered the domain in 1993 for just $100 (around ₹300 at the time). However, historical records show that AI.com was registered on May 4, 1993, just days after the World Wide Web entered the public domain. Online credit card transactions were only approved in 1996, making the claim of a child purchasing the domain online in 1993 highly implausible.

In reality, Ismail acquired the domain in 2021 through the domain brokerage platform SAW.com for an undisclosed amount. The previous owner was Future Media Architects, Inc., a Kuwait-based domain holding company owned by Thunayan Khalid Al-Ghanim.

Although the viral narrative of a child prodigy predicting the future of artificial intelligence is inaccurate, flipping the domain for $70 million remains a significant business achievement. According to Marszalek, acquiring AI.com was strategically important to prevent his company from being “commoditised” amid intensifying competition in the artificial intelligence sector.

Ismail has been active in Malaysia’s technology ecosystem for years, holding roles at companies such as Nuffnang, Packet One Networks, Friendster and YTL Communications, before founding 1337 Tech. He has also been associated with digital assets and emerging technologies, underscoring his long-standing engagement with the tech industry.