Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov revealed Wednesday that his messaging platform has entered into a partnership with Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI to integrate the Grok chatbot across Telegram’s ecosystem.
Durov stated that he and Musk reached an agreement for a one-year partnership that will bring Grok to Telegram’s expansive user base.
The AI chatbot will be integrated throughout all Telegram applications as part of this collaboration.
The financial terms of the arrangement appear substantial for Telegram’s bottom line.
Durov announced that the messaging company will receive $300 million in both cash and equity from xAI as part of the partnership agreement.
Telegram will also capture 50 percent of all revenue generated from xAI subscriptions sold through the Telegram platform.
This revenue-sharing model could provide ongoing income streams for the messaging service beyond the initial payment.
The Grok integration will feature prominently within Telegram’s user interface, according to a video statement released by Durov.
The AI assistant will be pinned for all users across the platform, making it easily accessible.
The chatbot will also appear directly in Telegram’s search functionality.
When users ask questions through the search bar, Grok will be available to provide responses and assistance.
Message editing capabilities represent another key feature of the integration.
Users will be able to utilize Grok to help refine and improve their communications within the platform.
Chat summarization tools will allow Grok to condense lengthy conversations into digestible overviews.
This feature could prove valuable for users managing multiple active conversations or reviewing past discussions.
Document summarization represents an additional functionality that Grok will provide to Telegram users.
When documents are shared within Telegram chats, the AI assistant can generate summaries of the content.
Moderation capabilities will also be part of Grok’s role within Telegram.
The AI system can serve as an automated moderator to help manage conversations and content across the platform.
The rollout timeline for these features is scheduled to begin during the summer of 2025, according to Durov’s video announcement.
The summer launch window positions Telegram to compete more aggressively with other messaging platforms that have begun incorporating AI features.
Musk had previously announced in March that Grok became available on Telegram, though at that time it was limited to premium users only.
The partnership announcement coincides with Telegram reaching a significant milestone of one billion monthly active users.
Musk announced in late March that xAI had acquired the social media platform X through an all-stock transaction.
The acquisition valued xAI at $80 billion while placing X’s valuation at $33 billion after accounting for $12 billion in debt.
Musk described the combination of xAI and X as strategically important for both companies’ futures. He stated that the merger would unite data, models, computing power, distribution channels and talent from both organizations.
“Since its founding two years ago, xAI has rapidly become one of the leading AI labs in the world, building models and data centers at unprecedented speed and scale,” Musk wrote regarding the xAI-X combination.
“xAI and X’s futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent. This combination will unlock immense potential by blending xAI’s advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach,” Musk explained.
The tech mogul further stated that the combined entity would “deliver smarter, more meaningful experiences to billions of people while staying true to our core mission of seeking truth and advancing knowledge.
