Telegram Teams Up with Musk’s xAI to Launch Grok for Users

Elon Musk’s AI venture, xAI, is set to pay Telegram $300 million to launch its Grok chatbot on the messaging platform, which boasts over a billion users. This move aims to strengthen its position within the rapidly growing AI industry, as reported by Reuters.

According to Telegram’s founder, Pavel Durov, the agreement spans one year and includes a provision where xAI will share half of the subscription revenue generated through the app. The $300 million will be settled with a combination of cash and stock.

Durov emphasized that xAI’s access to user data will be limited to information that Telegram users voluntarily provide to Grok during their interactions.

This collaboration could grant xAI, which acquired X earlier this year, access to valuable data for refining and enhancing its AI models.

As many open-source data sources have been depleted, AI firms face growing challenges in acquiring quality data. This has led companies like Meta Platforms to leverage public interactions with AI for training their models.

X’s privacy policy indicates that it utilizes public user posts to inform its AI models, although it’s unclear if xAI plans to follow a similar approach with data from Telegram.

This year, xAI has established multiple partnerships aimed at reinforcing its presence in both AI infrastructure and financial services. The company has not yet responded to a request for comment from Reuters.