Elon Musk's xAI acquired the domain dot.com in July, and it now redirects visitors to the download page for the Grok chatbot app — just days after OpenAI launched a product called Dots.
OpenAI unveiled Dots on Tuesday, an always-on AI agent featuring a bubbly avatar. The timing of the domain redirect has convinced much of the internet that Musk's team deliberately bought the web address to troll his former company.
According to Whois domain ownership records, the dot.com transfer occurred in July. That timing suggests xAI may have known about OpenAI's product name well before the public launch.
The connection between Musk and OpenAI runs deep. Musk co-founded OpenAI, left the company, started competing venture xAI, and later filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against his former partner. The domain move adds another chapter to that rivalry.
An anonymous X user who goes by @birdabo and describes themselves as "chief shitposting officer @SpaceXAI" was the first to spot the redirect, according to TechCrunch. The post went viral quickly.
Not everyone is convinced the move was intentional. "Dot" could simply be a common typo for "bot," making it a reasonable purchase for capturing mistyped search traffic. xAI does not own bot.com, however, nor does it own similar typo domains like vot.com, which is currently listed for sale.
TechCrunch reached out to xAI for comment and had not received a response at the time of publication. The company has not publicly explained its reasons for acquiring the domain.
The situation highlights the increasingly personal nature of competition in the AI industry. Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have traded barbs publicly since Musk's departure from the company he helped create.
Meanwhile, the more directly relevant domain dots.com remains under separate ownership, meaning OpenAI's new product does not have a matching web address.
Whether xAI's domain purchase was strategic, opportunistic, or simply a joke, the internet has drawn its own conclusion. The redirect remains active as of Wednesday.
