In a surprising twist, Elon Musk has publicly denied claims made by Telegram CEO Pavel Durov regarding a supposed $300 million partnership between Musk’s AI company xAI and the popular messaging platform Telegram.
Conflicting Announcements
Earlier this week, Pavel Durov made headlines after announcing a major collaboration between Telegram and xAI. He claimed the deal would see xAI’s AI assistant Grok integrated directly into Telegram, alongside a financial agreement involving $300 million in cash and equity, plus a 50% revenue-sharing model for subscriptions handled through the Telegram app.
However, Musk quickly responded via social media, dismissing the statement as false. He made it clear that no such financial deal exists between xAI and Telegram.
“There is no financial agreement between xAI and Telegram,” Musk stated, contradicting Durov’s earlier remarks.
What’s Really Going On?
Despite Musk’s denial of any financial deal, the Grok chatbot has already begun to appear in some versions of Telegram. This suggests there may still be a technical collaboration or trial integration underway, but without the financial component Durov initially described.
Possible Implications
The public contradiction between two major tech figures raises questions about internal communications and the future of any potential partnership. While Telegram is pushing to boost its presence in the AI space, Musk appears to be taking a more cautious approach when it comes to publicizing collaborations.
Bottom Line
While the arrival of Grok on Telegram might still move forward from a product standpoint, the alleged $300 million partnership appears to have been overstated—or, at the very least, prematurely announced.
