xAI Pays Telegram $300M to Integrate Grok AI

With features including group chat moderation, inbox agents, conversation and document summaries, text editing, and more, xAI’s Grok may soon be available on Telegram.

Elon Musk’s AI startup, xAI, has partnered with Telegram to distribute Grok, the latter’s chatbot, over Telegram and incorporate it into apps that are accessible on the chat app’s platform for a period of one year.

As part of the agreement, xAI will provide the chat app $300 million in cash and stock, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov announced on Tuesday. He also said that Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI has “agreed in principle” to incorporate its AI chatbot Grok throughout the messaging app.

In a May 28 X post, Durov stated that he and Musk had reached an agreement for Telegram to distribute Grok over the platform and incorporate it into its apps for a period of one year.

Durov further explained that the agreement was “agreed in principle, but formalities are pending” in response to Musk’s response to the post, which stated that “no deal has been signed,” hours later.

According to Durov, 50% of the money made from xAI subscriptions bought through the app would also go to Telegram.

Telegram’s premium users were able to access the Grok chatbot earlier this year thanks to xAI. It appears that Grok may now be accessible to all users.

Grok may be placed on top of app discussions, and users can ask Grok questions via the search bar, according to a video that Durov uploaded on X. Interestingly, Meta has also included Meta AI into WhatsApp’s and Instagram search bars.

The movie also demonstrates how Grok may be used to create stickers, summarize documents, links, and discussions, and write suggestions. According to reports, Grok will also aid with moderating and business question answering.

According to the CEO, the deal will give Telegram $300 million in cash and stock from Musk’s AI business, along with 50% of the profits from xAI memberships sold through Telegram.

“The best AI technology available will be made available to Telegram users this summer,” Durov stated in a message on his Telegram channel.

With Telegram, Grok integration and collaboration is anticipated to result in a broad rollout of Grok capabilities within the messenger, per a promotional video that accompanied Durov’s announcement.

Grok will provide threaded chats, smart text editing, document digests, chat summaries, inbox agents, group chat moderation, and more. It may be accessed through Telegram’s search bar.

Following the collaboration, several analysts predict that Musk will soon launch his own Telegram channel.

The announcement coincides with a number of May 28 articles about Telegram, including as BlackRock’s purported involvement in the messenger’s $1.5 billion bond offering and the appointment of former Visa cryptocurrency executive Nikola Plecas as the TON Foundation’s new vice president of payments.

In January, Toncoin TON was chosen as the only cryptocurrency accepted by Telegram for app services, demonstrating the company’s tight collaboration with the TON Foundation. And also following the news, Toncoin surged 20% in a few hours. With a market valuation of $8.9 billion, TON is now the 19th largest cryptocurrency and is trading at $3.60, according to CoinGecko data.