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Re:Ramp Launches a Model Router by reticulates on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @05:16PM (#49367313)
The domain was previously owned by Innovation HQ (innovationhq.com) who own tens of thousands of domains, some of the best in the world (they sold robot.com not long ago, owns/runs whatismyip.com). Innovation were asking ~$5 million for it earlier this year. Given the huge money flowing into AI router projects, I expect Ramp paid very close to asking, or perhaps a little more. So, $5 million +/- $1 million is my guess. I assume Ramp will announce the price in a few weeks to generate some more press for the project.
Re:Ramp Launches a Model Router by dvaplima on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @05:18PM (#49367339)
I wonder if more companies use web domains as "investments" aswell
Re:Ramp Launches a Model Router by reticulates on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @05:35PM (#49367505)
There are domain name investment companies, yes. HugeDomains owns over 5 million domains!

As for product companies, like Ramp, buying domains as an investment is generally a terrible idea. Domains are not liquid, the (hypothetical) $5 million that Ramp paid is not a price Ramp could achieve when selling the domain tomorrow. The previous owners owned Router.com for over 20 years before Ramp came along, willing to pay a lot of money for it.

Sometimes a company will buy a domain, use it, shut down whatever it was, then end up with the domain on their balance sheet for years, even decades, before someone tracks them down and offers to buy it. In those cases, the company can make money off the domain, but for every time that happens, there’s thousands more domains on balance sheets that nobody wants to pay a good amount for.

More broadly, domain name investors make their money by buying lots of domains and holding them over the long term, making their money from the very small number that sell. Part of why good domains are so expensive is that 1 sale needs to cover the cost of hundreds of even thousands of other domains that don’t sell.

Re:Ramp Launches a Model Router by sparkling on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @05:29PM (#49367445)
Domains investors (or squatters, as one may call them) have been around since the beginning of domains.
Re:Ramp Launches a Model Router by reticulates on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @05:40PM (#49367554)
I think you mean landlords, not squatters. Squatters are the people who occupy owned property without permission, landlords are the people who hold property, do nothing, and collect profit.
Re:Ramp Launches a Model Router by embedding-shape on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @09:11PM (#49369286)
In the context of domains, a domain squatter would be more like someone who holds and keeps a domain without any intention of actually using it or taking it knowing someone else might have use of that exact name, they just want to sell it later for more money. In real-life I agree with your definition though, I guess it not 100% comparable, bad name that got stuck.
Re:Ramp Launches a Model Router by tough on Saturday August 22, 2026 @06:39AM (#49398359)
Digital piracy has little to do with real life piracy and yet the naming stuck too somehow
Re:Ramp Launches a Model Router by hanuffs on Thursday August 20, 2026 @02:55PM (#49378650)
Domain trolls. Similar to patent trolls that buy patents only to resell or license them.
Re:Ramp Launches a Model Router by sparkling on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @05:32PM (#49367471)
>InnovationHQ.com

Their site is a totally blank HTML page, it seems?

Re:Ramp Launches a Model Router by reticulates on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @05:36PM (#49367513)
Yes, that’s how you know they’re rich rich. They’re so rich they don’t care about having a website. The reputable brokers know who they are, the serious buyers will get a message to them.
Re:Ramp Launches a Model Router by andai on Friday August 21, 2026 @02:43AM (#49384602)

  <html>
  <head></head>
  <body></body>
  </html>
That's funny I thought it would be an empty response, but they explicitly hand-coded it like that.

Also -- offtopic but I think it's funny -- for conformance, you need a doctype and a (non-empty) title. So the above isn't valid, but this is:

  <!doctype html>
  <title>bleh</title>
Re:Ramp Launches a Model Router by aitchnyu on Friday August 21, 2026 @10:16AM (#49388444)
berkshirehathaway.com says hi.