xAI Corp., Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, has secured a significant deal with Telegram, the messaging app, valued at $300 million. This agreement involves a combination of cash and equity and will see xAI's Grok chatbot integrated more extensively into Telegram's platform. The partnership aims to broaden Grok's reach to Telegram's massive user base of over 1 billion monthly active users. Telegram will receive a share of the revenue generated from Grok subscriptions.
The funds will be used to further develop and integrate the Grok chatbot within the Telegram app. This integration will allow Telegram users to access Grok's capabilities, including answering general knowledge questions, summarizing documents, and generating writing suggestions. The deal is expected to significantly boost both xAI's and Telegram's market presence.
xAI, known for its development of large language models (LLMs) like Grok, will leverage this partnership to expand its chatbot's reach and user base. The integration is anticipated to launch this summer. The deal comes at a time when Telegram is also pursuing a separate $1.5 billion debt financing round.
The strategic partnership highlights the growing importance of AI chatbots in the messaging app landscape and underscores xAI's commitment to integrating its technology into widely used platforms. The deal's success will depend on the user adoption of Grok within the Telegram ecosystem.
