Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, has signed a partnership agreement with the messaging app Telegram, under which the company’s AI chatbot, Grok, will be integrated into the Telegram platform for one year. The goal of the move is exposure to the potential of over a billion users and to deepen xAI’s foothold in the rapidly developing AI market. According to Telegram founder Pavel Durov, xAI will pay approximately $300 million in cash and shares to Telegram in exchange for deploying the bot on the platform. In addition, Telegram will receive 50% of the revenue from users who subscribe to Grok through the app.

Grok was already available this year to paying users on Telegram, but it now appears to be expanding to all users. In a video posted by Durov on the X network, a demonstration is shown of the bot's integration into the app – including pinning Grok to the top of chat windows, using the search bar to ask questions, and offering writing suggestions, chat and document summaries, sticker creation, and more. The bot is also expected to serve as a tool for businesses and community management.

Despite the announcement, Musk himself claimed in response to Durov’s post that the agreement has not yet been officially signed. Durov clarified in response that the parties have reached a preliminary agreement and only formalities remain to be completed.

According to Telegram’s privacy policy, xAI will not have access to user data unless it is explicitly given as part of an interaction with Grok. However, the agreement may provide xAI with a valuable source of information for training and improving its AI models – a sensitive issue in a market where high-quality data sources are becoming increasingly scarce.