Telegram, xAI announce $300M deal to bring Grok AI to messaging platform
Under the deal, Telegram will receive $300 million in a mix of cash and equity, and earn 50% of revenue from Grok subscriptions sold through its app.
Telegram has entered into a one-year partnership with Elon Musk’s xAI to integrate its AI chatbot Grok into the messaging platform.
Under the deal, Telegram will receive $300 million in a mix of cash and equity, and earn 50% of revenue from Grok subscriptions sold through its app.
Pavel Durov, Founder and CEO of Telegram, announced the development on X (formerly Twitter).
“Telegram and xAI have agreed to a 1-year partnership to distribute Grok to Telegram’s billion+ users and integrate it into its apps. Telegram will receive $300M in cash and equity from xAI, plus 50% of revenue from xAI subscriptions sold via Telegram. Together, we win!” read Durov’s post.
Grok will be accessible directly via search on the Telegram app and offer several features, including a threaded chat experience, smart text editing, chat and document summarisation, link previews, inbox agents, fact-checking in channels, AI-driven sticker generation, and avatar creation.
This partnership also showcases xAI’s aggressive distribution strategy as it takes on rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic in the AI chatbot space.
Telegram is planning to raise at least $1.5 billion through a bond issue on Wednesday, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. The offering has reportedly drawn support from both new and existing investors, it added.
The move shows continued investor confidence in the messaging platform despite the legal challenges its founder faces. In August last year, French authorities filed preliminary charges against Durov for allegedly refusing to cooperate with investigations into illegal activities on the app.
Both Durov and Telegram have denied the allegations, asserting that the company has complied with relevant criminal probes.
Edited by Kanishk Singh