Telegram has cast a take care of Elon Musk’s xAI to weave Grok AI into the material of the encrypted messaging platform.
This isn’t only a pleasant collaboration; xAI is placing severe cash on the desk – a cool $300 million, a mixture of laborious money and fairness. And for Telegram, they’ll pocket 50% of any subscription cash Grok pulls in by means of their app.
This leap into the world of AI couldn’t come at a extra attention-grabbing time for Telegram. Whereas CEO Pavel Durov is wrestling with some fairly severe authorized complications, and governments in sure corners of the globe are giving the platform the side-eye, the corporate’s financial institution stability is wanting wholesome.
The truth is, Telegram is gearing as much as elevate a minimum of $1.5 billion by issuing five-year bonds. With a relatively tempting 9% yield, these bonds are additionally designed to assist purchase again a number of the debt from their 2021 bond problem. It appears big-name buyers like BlackRock, Mubadala, and Citadel are nonetheless eager, suggesting they see a vivid future for the messaging service.
And the numbers do inform a narrative of a major comeback. Forged your thoughts again to 2023, and Telegram was nursing a $173 million loss. Quick ahead to 2024, and so they’d flipped that on its head, banking a $540 million revenue from $1.4 billion in income. They’re not stopping there both, with optimistic forecasts for 2025 pointing to income north of $700 million from a $2 billion income pot.
So, what is going to Grok truly do for Telegram customers? The hope is that xAI’s conversational AI will carry a complete new layer of smarts to the platform. This contains supercharged data looking out, assist with drafting messages, and all types of automated methods. It’s a play that might assist Telegram unlock recent monetisation alternatives and compete with Meta bringing Llama-powered smarts to WhatsApp.
Nevertheless, Telegram’s integration of AI is all occurring in opposition to a reasonably dramatic backdrop. Pavel Durov, the person on the firm’s helm, has discovered himself in sizzling water.
Again in August 2024, Durov was arrested in France and later indicted on a dozen costs. These aren’t minor infringements both; they embody severe accusations like complicity in spreading baby exploitation materials and drug trafficking, all linked to claims that Telegram wasn’t doing sufficient to police its content material.
Durov was initially caught in France, however by March 2025, he was given the nod to depart the nation, a minimum of for some time. What occurs subsequent with these authorized battles is anybody’s guess, however it’s a large cloud hanging over the corporate.
And it’s not simply private authorized woes for Durov. Total governments are beginning to lose endurance. Vietnam, as an illustration, has had its Ministry of Science and Know-how order web suppliers to tug the plug on Telegram. Their reasoning? They are saying the platform has turn into a hotbed for crime.
Vietnamese officers reckon 68% of Telegram channels and teams within the nation are as much as no good, concerned in every part from fraud to drug offers. Telegram, for its half, mentioned it was bowled over by the transfer, insisting it had at all times tried to play ball with authorized requests from Vietnam.
Again to the xAI partnership, it’s a transparent sign of Telegram trying to the long run and seeing AI as a core pillar of it. The cash concerned and the promise of shared revenues present simply how a lot potential either side see in getting Grok into the palms of Telegram’s thousands and thousands of customers.
The subsequent twelve months will likely be an actual check for Telegram. Can the corporate innovate its method ahead whereas additionally displaying it may be a accountable participant on the worldwide stage?
(Photograph from Unsplash)
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