Summary
- Telegram secures $300 million plus 50% of on-platform xAI subscription sales in exchange for implementing Grok for a year.
- The Grok LLM chatbot could add a host of AI-powered functions like smart composition and automated chat moderation.
- Pavel Durov, CEO, asserts “user privacy is paramount” and xAI will only access data explicitly shared with Grok.
When a piece of popular software wants to incorporate a cutting-edge third-party tool, it typically costs the software’s owner a lot of money. But up is down, left is right, and cats are running away with dogs in today’s VC-backed, AI-packed world.
The latest such evidence? Telegram’s CEO just announced a one-year deal to integrate xAI’s Grok LLM interface within the widely acclaimed messaging app. And not only is the Dubai-based, social media-esque platform not spending a cent, it’s slated to receive $300 million in cash and equity from xAI, plus 50% of the revenue from xAI subscriptions sold through Telegram. In exchange, the up-and-coming chatbot gets put in front of Telegram’s 1-billion-and-counting monthly active users, and could come away with countless new teachable interactions.
A deal where everybody wins
Just when you thought Telegram couldn’t add any more features
Telegram has expanded in so many ways over the years that it clearly resembles a lightweight version of social media. Grok has a little more attitude than its LLM competitors, which could make it a great companion to the versatile messaging platform.
A brief preview video shared by the CEO shows in-depth implementations that let Telegram users leverage Grok’s digital smarts at nearly every turn. And it’s more than just a shoehorned-in chatbot portal. The new partnership gives users access to AI-powered composition, summarization, chat moderation, and other functions that might not mean so much if Telegram weren’t already packed with such a wide offering of in-demand features.
Arguably the most impressive part is the relative king’s ransom Durov and company managed to secure. The Grok partnership adds $300 million to the company’s coffers and comes a day after insiders tipped off Telegram’s $1.5 billion in bond issuance funding. For the deal’s duration, Telegram will also skim half the revenue off the top of all xAI subscriptions sold on the platform.
So what’s the catch?
Naturally, one of the first questions social media asked was, “What about privacy?” That’s a good question, considering how hard Telegram works to uphold its secure, private reputation. Durov didn’t hedge at all, offering concerned users the following:
User privacy is paramount. To be clear, xAI will only access data that Telegram users explicitly share with Grok through direct interactions. That’s expected — you can’t message anyone (including a chatbot) without sharing what you write.
There’s no official word on exactly how xAI will use the information users share with Grok through Telegram. Like other AI and LLM implementations, Grok is always in search of fresh, high-quality data. Grok competitors like ChatGPT and Gemini support free access partly by reserving some unpaid interactions for potential training purposes down the line, and xAI’s model could follow a similar path. At the very least, we know that advanced, natural-language control of your Telegram messages and group chats is on its way, and periodic nudging to consider an xAI subscription might be, too.
