Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, is investing $300 million into Telegram in a deal that will integrate its Grok chatbot into the messaging platform.
The agreement includes both cash and equity components and runs for one year.
Telegram users will soon begin seeing Grok inside the app, a xAI aims to push its chatbot into mainstream digital communication. Telegram’s founder, Pavel Durov, confirmed the deal in a post on X, saying, “Together, we win!”
xAI will also split subscription revenue generated through the app with Telegram, handing the platform 50% of all earnings linked to Grok subscriptions. For xAI, this is a data-driven initiative that will scale its AI vision and reach more than a billion users globally.
Unlike previous partnerships that largely focused on infrastructure or financial services, this one is squarely aimed at user engagement and behavioural data. With most public AI training repositories now heavily mined, firms like xAI are working to find new, meaningful sources of interaction data. That’s where platforms like Telegram come in.
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However, privacy is highly important. xAI’s affiliate company, X (formerly Twitter), already uses public posts to train its AI models. Whether Telegram user data will be harvested in the same way is not yet known. Neither company responded to requests for clarification.
Telegram, meanwhile, is moving fast on the financial aspect. The company is currently raising $1.5 billion through a bond sale, with backing from investors including BlackRock, Mubadala, and Citadel. The goal is to buy back debt from its earlier bond issue in 2021 and strengthen its balance sheet.
Within hours of the Grok deal becoming public, the TON token, Telegram’s blockchain-linked digital currency, surged by over 18%, jumping from $3.28 to $3.55. The increase started before the official announcement.
With Grok’s integration, Telegram is expected to roll out AI-enhanced features including threaded replies, real-time text summarisation, document previews, and smart chat moderation. These tools could change user experience on the app, especially in high-volume group settings.
Beyond its immediate results, the partnership places xAI in a stronger position to compete against established companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. However, the cost at which the scale will come is not yet known, especially to user privacy.
