Telegram announces $300m deal with xAI for distribution of chatbot Grok

Elon Musk's startup xAI will pay Telegram $300 million to deploy its chatbot Grok on the messaging app, aiming to leverage the platform with over a billion monthly active users. and sharpen its competitive edge in the booming artificial intelligence market.

The agreement is for one year during which xAI will also give Telegram 50 per cent of the subscription sales made through the messaging app

The strange thing is that the announcement was made on 29 May 2025 by Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, in a post on X. While Elon Musk said that no agreement has been signed, in response to Durov's post on X, specifying that the parties have agreed on the points of the agreement in principle, but the formalities have not yet been carried out.

Durov specified that xAI will only have access to data that Telegram users explicitly share with Grok through direct interactions.