Oh, look at the tortured path that .io dollars take, since it's technically a TLD for an occupied country, being operated by someone (Ethos Capital) with no connection to or permission from the original or current inhabitants.
Source: I've registered .ai names since 2019. I use a 5 and 8 letter fairly common english word for two .ai domains; both were standard pricing originally, but comparable available domains are now >$10k. However, I could probably at best resell my domains for < $1k each, as resell value for .ai is hard once you use them. I guess investor dollars and being seen to do something might due the demand for these premium domain options.