Telegram has announced a major partnership with Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, to integrate its chatbot Grok into the messaging platform for a year. The deal, which Telegram founder Pavel Durov says is worth $300 million in cash and equity, marks a significant move for both companies as they expand their presence in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
A promotional video shared by Durov on X showcased several new integrations: users can pin Grok to the top of chats, query it directly from the search bar, and use it for tasks such as summarising chats, links and documents, generating writing suggestions, creating stickers, answering customer questions, and moderating content. These features mirror similar functionality seen in Meta’s rollout of Meta AI across Instagram and WhatsApp.
Interestingly, while Durov announced the deal as confirmed, Musk responded on X saying no formal agreement had been signed yet. Durov clarified that the two parties had agreed in principle, and legal formalities were still underway.
If finalised, the partnership could significantly boost xAI’s standing in the AI sector and allow Telegram to further monetise its growing platform through AI-enhanced services.
As part of the agreement, xAI will deploy Grok across Telegram’s platform, including within its mini-apps ecosystem. Telegram will also receive 50% of all subscription revenue generated through the app. The deal could potentially expose Grok to Telegram’s more than one billion users, providing xAI with a substantial user base and valuable interactions to refine its AI models.
Durov emphasised that xAI will only access data users explicitly share with Grok via direct interactions, aiming to address concerns about data privacy. While xAI’s parent company, X, uses public user posts to train its models, it remains unclear whether similar data-sharing mechanisms will be applied to Telegram.
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