Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup Xai has paid $300 million to Telegram to provide GROK chatbots to users of its messaging platform.
The partnership is set to last a year, with Telegram also earning 50% of all subscription revenue generated from GROK in the app. Durov described the transaction as “strengthening the telegram’s financial position.”
“This summer, Telegram users will have access to the best AI technology on the market,” he wrote in the post.
The news has entered a new era of search and chat with over 1 billion users just two months after Grok landed on Telegram.
Musk AI startup Xai stocks $300 million to pay Telegram, major Glock AI push revenue
Telegram recently hit a billion user marks, as CEO Pavel Durov confirmed in an interview with Business Insider. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, the company is also planning to raise at least $1.5 billion through bond offers. Telegram is particularly popular in places such as Russia and Ukraine, and is widely used by both citizens and government officials.
The deal will boost the massive distribution of Grok, Musk’s AI assistant, beyond X’s current home. It also gives Telegram a new way to generate revenue without relying on advertising. Model Durov has been resisting for a long time.
Still, this news comes at a complicated moment for Telegram’s founders. Durov is facing an investigation in France where he retains citizenship and over allegations that Telegram is being used for criminal acts, including drug trafficking and child exploitation. After being arrested last August, French authorities banned him from leaving the country without prior approval.
Telegram previously said it was compliant with EU law in X, and that Durov “has nothing to hide.”
Doloff, who left Russia in 2014, holds citizenship in the United Arab Emirates, where Telegram is currently headquartered.
The Xai partnership came in a move that valued Xai at $80 billion a few weeks after Musk folded its AI venture into X Corp. Grok began giving back some strange and irrelevant answers in South Africa earlier this month, which refers to “white genocide,” before making headlines earlier this month, raising questions about model safety measures.
Xai attributed the issue to “illegal changes” that violated the company’s policies. “We are conducting a thorough investigation and implementing measures to increase Grok’s transparency and reliability,” Xai said in X’s statement.
The incident added fuel to concerns about how easy it is to operate AI tools. Experts say Grok is not the only one at risk. And these vulnerabilities are not rare.
Benefits and monitoring
Bring your Grok to Telegram and you can step into WhatsApp and the traffic lights. As one user posted, “Grok AI moves to telegram-spice up the AI scene with Supercharging Telegram using Smart Telegram with Smart Telegram.” There are also stories of wider rollouts coming. This can make the experience smoother across your device.
Still, it’s not all a smooth voyage. Some users have flagged possible privacy and security concerns. “Grok’s integration with Telegram introduces potential security risks,” one user warned, highlighting the risk of social engineering attacks, taking into account Grok’s persuasive response. There are also questions about how much access Grok needs to have on user data and whether Telegram will maintain a reputation to protect users’ privacy.
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