Telegram partners with xAI: Grok chatbot to be integrated in $300 million deal

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence venture, xAI, has secured a major partnership with messaging platform Telegram, agreeing to invest $300 million to integrate its chatbot Grok into the app’s ecosystem. The move is expected to enhance xAI’s competitive positioning in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov revealed the collaboration in a post on thesocial media platform X, stating that the agreement will span one year. The deal comprises both cash and equity components and includes a revenue-sharing model whereby Telegram will receive 50 per cent of any subscription earnings generated through the chatbot on its platform.

With more than one billion users worldwide, the messaging platform offers xAI a significant user base to scale Grok’s presence and capabilities. Durov assured users that the chatbot will only have access to information that is directly shared with it, aiming to address privacy concerns.

It is noteworthy that this partnership arrives at a time when AI companies are facing increasing difficulties in obtaining high-quality data to train large language models. As conventional open-source datasets become depleted, firms are turning towards platforms with large-scale user interactions. Meta,. for instance, has already begun leveraging public chats for AI development purposes.

The new alliance with Telegram could therefore provide xAI with a fresh stream of user interactions that may be valuable for refining its AI systems. While X, the social media platform also owned by Musk, currently uses public posts to train its AI models, it remains unclear whether a similar approach will be taken with Telegram data.

This is the latest in a series of strategic moves by xAI this year, as the firm deepens its involvement across both AI infrastructure and financial technology sectors. xAI has yet to issue an official statement regarding the Telegram deal.

(With inputs from Bloomberg)