Elon Musk’s Grok comes to Telegram with $300 million deal
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI has partnered with Telegram to integrate its AI chatbot Grok across the messaging platform, according to Telegram CEO Pavel Durov.
Telegram and xAI have agreed to a one-year partnership to distribute Grok to a billion Telegram users and integrate it into its apps, Durov announced on X on May 28.
As part of the agreement, Telegram will receive $300 million in cash and equity from Musk’s AI company, in addition to 50% of revenue from xAI subscriptions sold via Telegram, the CEO noted.
“This summer, Telegram users will gain access to the best AI technology on the market,” Durov said in a post on his Telegram channel.
Grok integration begins with Telegram
According to a promo video accompanying Durov’s announcement, the partnership is expected to bring a wide rollout of Grok features within the messenger.
Accessible via the search bar on Telegram, Grok will offer threaded chats, smart text editing, chat summaries, document digests, inbox agents, group chat moderation and more.
Neither xAI nor Grok had confirmed the partnership independently at the time of publication.
Related: Durov blocked from attending Oslo Freedom Forum — Human Rights Foundation
Some commentators speculate that Musk will soon create his own Telegram channel following the partnership.
Toncoin spikes over 20% on a series of Telegram news
The news comes amid several Telegram-related stories published on May 28, including BlackRock’s reported participation in the messenger’s $1.5 billion bond sale and ex-Visa crypto executive Nikola Plecas joining the TON Foundation as its new vice president of payments.
Telegram works closely with the TON Foundation, picking Toncoin (TON) as the messenger’s only accepted cryptocurrency for app services in January.
Toncoin has rallied on the news, seeing a 20% spike within a few hours. According to data from CoinGecko, TON is trading at $3.60 and is currently the 19th largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $8.9 billion.
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