Elon Musk’s xAI companions with messaging app Telegram in $300 million Grok do business in

Elon Musk’s startup xAI is paying the Dubai-based messaging platform Telegram $300 million to roll out its Grok synthetic prudence chatbot, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov introduced in a publish on Wednesday.

Durov stated he and Musk struck a year-long partnership that “strengthens Telegram’s financial position.”

Along with the $300 million cost from xAI, Telegram will even earn 50% of the income from xAI subscriptions which are offered at the platform, consistent with Durov.

“This summer, Telegram users will gain access to the best AI technology on the market,” Durov wrote.

xAI and Telegram didn’t right away reply to CNBC’s request for remark.

Telegram handed 1 billion per thirty days customers in 2025, and the corporate is ready to lift a minimum of $1.5 billion in a bond factor on Wednesday, consistent with a file from the Wall Street Journal. The messaging platform is widespread in nations like Russia and Ukraine, the place it’s impaired via executive officers and the army.

Durov is dealing with an investigation in France, the place he’s a citizen, for allegedly permitting criminality together with drug trafficking, fraud and kid pornography on Telegram. Following his arrest in August, Durov has been barred from departure France with out authorization.

Telegram stated in a prior observation posted on Musk’s social media platform X that it abides via EU rules, and that Durov has “nothing to hide.”

The Russian-born billionaire left Russia in 2014, consistent with Telegram’s web site, and could also be a citizen of the United Arab Emirates.

In March, Musk introduced xAI merged with X in a do business in that values the AI corporate at $80 billion and the social media corporate at $33 billion. The corporate’s Grok chatbot used to be beneath hearth previous this week then it all started responding to person queries with unrelated feedback concerning the arguable matter of “white genocide” in South Africa.

xAI stated the responses have been caused via an “unauthorized modification” that “violated xAI’s internal policies and core values,” consistent with a publish from the corporate on X.

“We have conducted a thorough investigation and are implementing measures to enhance Grok’s transparency and reliability,” xAI stated within the publish.

Professionals stated the Grok responses, and alternative AI chatbot mistakes, display how inclined the methods are to tampering.

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