Elon Musk publicly announced that no agreement has yet been made (Picture: AFP)
Elon Musk’s circle of allies may be shrinking. After being sidelined from Donald Trump’s government,he is now fighting – in public – with another influential figure.
His once-close rapport with Telegram founder Pavel Durov may be wearing thin after the US billionaire publicly disowned a major AI partnership.
The Russian tech entrepreneur announced a deal between his messaging app and Musk’s chatbot,Grok – worth £223 million.
Durov wrote: ‘This summer,Telegram users will gain access to the best AI technology on the market.
‘Elon Musk and I have agreed to a one-year partnership to bring xAI’s Grok to our billion+ users and integrate it across all Telegram apps.’
The awkward exchange between Durov and Musk on X
But Musk replied,‘No deal has been signed’ – publicly,for their combined total of 221 million followers to read.
The conversation between the two billionaires did not stop there as Durov attempted to smooth things out,replying: ‘True. Agreed in principle,but formalities are pending.’
Under a one-year agreement,the Tesla owner would bring his AI chatbot,Grok,to Telegram.
In return,Durov would get £223 million in hard cash and stock,and revenue from subscriptions.
Announcing the partnership,Durov stressed that it ‘strengthens’ Telegram’s financial position:.
He added: ‘We will receive $300 million in cash and equity from xAI,plus 50% of the revenue from xAI subscriptions sold via Telegram.’
The terms may appear unbalanced,but it would allow xAI,which in March acquired Musk’s X,to have access to Telegram’s customers,which Durov estimated has more than one billion users.
Generative AI businesses have been aiming to grow their user base in order to recover revenues after huge investments in the state-of-the-art technology.
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