NEW YORK: Telegram will receive US$300 million (S$388 million) in cash and equity, plus half the revenue from xAI subscriptions sold through the app, in a new one-year deal with Elon Musk’s xAI to launch the Grok chatbot on its platform, Malay Mail reported, citing a post on X by Telegram founder Pavel Durov. He said Grok will be available on Telegram starting this summer.
Mr Musk tweeted back that no deal has been signed, with Mr Durov adding that the deal was “agreed in principle” but formalities are pending.
While the terms may seem one-sided, the agreement gives xAI, which acquired Mr Musk’s X platform in late March, access to Telegram’s user base, estimated by Mr Durov to exceed one billion.
In terms of user security, Mr Durov said, “User privacy is paramount. To be clear, xAI will only access data that Telegram users explicitly share with Grok through direct interactions. That’s expected — you can’t message anyone (including a chatbot) without sharing what you write.”
Generative AI companies have been focusing on expanding their user base to recoup the huge investments they made.
xAI launched the latest version of Grok, called Grok 3, in February. It’s currently available on X, but access is limited to non-subscribers. Subscriptions for Grok cost US$40 monthly or US$395 a year.
The move puts Mr Musk in competition with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, as Grok 3 is up against OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
🔥 This summer, Telegram users will gain access to the best AI technology on the market. @elonmusk and I have agreed to a 1-year partnership to bring xAI’s @grok to our billion+ users and integrate it across all Telegram apps 🤝
💪 This also strengthens Telegram’s financial… pic.twitter.com/ZPK550AyRV
— Pavel Durov (@durov) May 28, 2025
/TISG
