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| By Michael A. Robinson |
Next Tuesday marks the start of one of the biggest shopping events in America.
More than 200 million shoppers will go online and buy all manner of goods from smartphones and speakers to jeans and jewelry.
Hundreds of millions of individual transactions will cross the wire.
Millions of small businesses will see their biggest sales week of the year.
In all, the four-day event is expected to bring in some $25 billion.
It’s the biggest and most expansive online spree in the world.
I’m talking about Amazon Prime Day.
Here’s the thing that gets lost in the headlines these days: E-commerce is on pace to be worth $7 trillion, a figure AI is set to accelerate.
Let me tell you about an American “quiet giant” that plays a crucial role in supporting the entire web … and is set to crush the overall market.
I’ll give you a hint. Warren Buffett is a major investor. And no, it’s not Amazon (AMZN).
The Web Is Still Growing
Domain registration may not sound sexy at first. But think about this: Every website in the world must officially register its site. Doesn't matter if it's .com, .net or .org.
Without going through the web toll taker, you cannot launch or run your site. No domain on file, no e-commerce. It's as simple as that.
And while that is a de facto way of life for anyone selling goods or providing content online, it has a big payoff.
Just 15 years ago, there were 193 million domain registrations worldwide.
Today that number stands at 392.5 million — a clean double in a decade and a half.
And it shows no signs of slowing. Analysts project the total will hit 510 million by 2030.
That's a lot of toll booths getting paid.
And here is what makes this story even more compelling right now …
In the first quarter of this year alone, new .com and .net registrations jumped nearly 14% from the year-ago period.
Something is driving that surge. And it isn't just new businesses setting up shop online.
AI Shakes Up the Web
The need to register a domain is fresh on my mind. A few weeks ago, I needed a new website for a personal project.
This was not my first rodeo. See, I built a couple of sites back in the late 90s when I was a musician promoting my band.
Back then, it was a royal headache to create and launch a site, upload all the graphics and make it look professional.
I can’t tell you how many hours I spent correcting coding errors.
So, when I told my wife when she came home from work one evening that I had built a site in half an hour, she couldn’t believe it. I have no relevant technical or graphic expertise.
But “my friend” Claude did. He’s a well-known AI bot.
All I had to do was upload some text and photos. In about half an hour, Claude had built a very pro-looking site.
“He” even helped launch and register it.
I am far from alone. AI is bringing completely new people online, not just helping experienced developers work faster.
Between 93% and 95% of users of Hostinger’s AI website platform were first-time website builders with no previous paid web presence.
About 80% of users on AI app and website builder Lovable are solo creators rather than teams.
The Quiet Giant
That's where VeriSign (VRSN) comes in.
Don't worry if you've never heard of it. Most investors haven't.
But this Reston, Virginia company plays a vital role in servicing the backbone of e-commerce — not to mention media, political and entertainment websites around the world.
The firm ranks as the exclusive registry operator for .com and .net — the two most valuable pieces of digital real estate on earth.
Every company, every startup, every first-time website builder who wants a .com has to go through VeriSign.
There is no alternative. No competitor. No workaround.
Right now VeriSign manages 161 million .com registrations and another 12.5 million .net addresses.
Combined, that's roughly 45% of all websites in the world.
Media companies, political campaigns, entertainment giants, e-commerce startups — they all pay the toll.
And yet despite a market cap north of $20 billion, VeriSign is covered by fewer Wall Street analysts than you can count on one hand.
Amazon has more than 40 analysts tracking its every move. VeriSign operates almost entirely below the radar.
That's exactly the kind of company we love to find. So does the world’s most famous investor.
Buffett Figured This Out Long Ago
Warren Buffett has always loved businesses that own infrastructure everyone must use.
He has been big on railroads and utilities.
They are basically toll roads.
You want to move freight across America? You pay the railroad. No negotiating. No alternatives.
VeriSign is the toll booth for the web. And Buffett figured that out a long time ago.
Berkshire Hathaway owns nearly 10% of VeriSign's total outstanding shares.
That's not a portfolio position. That's a conviction bet.
The reason is simple. VeriSign has something every CEO dreams about: contractual pricing power.
It can regularly raise prices on millions of .com domains while businesses keep renewing year after year.
Those increases flow straight to the bottom line because the business is almost entirely automated.
The result is high margins and lots of recurring cash.
The numbers back it up …
- Revenue reached $1.66 billion in 2025, up 6.4%.
- Earnings per share grew 10.1%.
- And VeriSign returned more than $1.1 billion to shareholders.
That’s the beauty of a business that doesn’t need to spend heavily to grow.
More of every dollar falls to the bottom line — and eventually finds its way back to investors.
Weiss Ratings even gives it the thumbs up:
Add it all up and you can see this is a great way to invest in the trends of AI and e-commerce with a stock that will build wealth for years to come.
Best,
Michael A. Robinson
P.S. These kinds of underground suppliers and toll booth operators are my favorite ways to play big trends.
That’s why I recently dug into the companies that SpaceX will need as it tries to fulfill its galactic promises from its IPO.
I outline how I found them, what they are and why SpaceX’s IPO is just starting to send them into outer space here.
1 https://chainstoreage.com/numerator-about-43-us-households-shop-prime-day-many-driven-inflation
2 https://www.smartscout.com/blog/amazon-prime-day-statistics
3 https://investor.verisign.com/static-files/43d6b98f-00e5-4357-9bd0-5573773d437f
