What are monetisation strategies as xAI and Telegram strike deal?

• The landmark deal highlights how messaging platforms are becoming not just communication tools but revenue engines, where AI features are expected to drive user engagement, subscriptions, and new streams of income way beyond traditional advertising or data sales. 
• The deal provides Telegram with a significant financial boost, as it pursues a planned $1.5b bond issue.
• The deal gives xAI immediate access to Telegram’s more than one billion user base;a fast track to scale bot usage and data collection. 
• Telegram will also receive 50% of revenue from xAI subscriptions sold through the platform.
  

There has been a dramatic shift in the global messaging landscape. At the centre of this transformation are two platforms, X (formerly Twitter) and Telegram. Each is pursuing ambitious monetisation strategies designed to leverage AI, subscriptions, and platform extensions in innovative ways. 

The May 2025 announcement of a $300 million partnership between xAI and Telegram to integrate the Grok AI chatbot into Telegram demonstrates the urgent need both companies have to diversify revenue streams and reshape their business models for sustainability.

The landmark deal highlights how messaging platforms are becoming not just communication tools but revenue engines, where AI features are expected to drive user engagement, subscriptions, and new streams of income way beyond traditional advertising or data sales. 

The xAI-Telegram deal

The deal was important for both sides. First, it gave cash and monetisation opportunities to Telegram. Telegram needs a monetisation strategy, and this deal gives it a major financial boost, just as it pursues a planned $1.5 billion bond issue.

On the other side, the deal gives xAI immediate access to Telegram’s more than one billion user base;a fast track to scale bot usage and data collection. 

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov announced the landmark partnership: xAI (Elon Musk’s AI startup) will pay $300 million in cash and equity to embed its Grok chatbot within Telegram for one year. Telegram will also receive 50 per cent of revenue from xAI subscriptions sold through the platform.

This summer, Telegram users will gain access to the best AI technology on the market and the deal will “strengthen Telegram’s financial position”. 

This comes as Telegram claims over one billion monthly users (MAUs) and plans to raise at least $1.5 billion via bonds. What they had to offer to the X and xAI team was the reach that the reincarnation of Twitter seems to have lost in terms of users with X sitting outside the top 10 as the 12th largest social platform, with roughly 600 million monthly users.

Elon Musk’s xAI acquired X (formerly known as Twitter) on March 28, 2025 as an all-stock transaction. The deal valued X at $33 billion and xAI at $80 billion. xAI is now cash rich and looking for more users.

In the AI race, ChatGPT had 400 million weekly users in February 2025, with plans to hit one billion users by the end of 2025. xAI needs to scale X reach fast. 

In a confirmation of xAI’s interest in messaging, X has announced that it will support person-to-person messaging again, via its newest version Xchat. 

Telegram’s monetisation strategy

Telegram has historically positioned itself as an ad-free, privacy-first alternative to WhatsApp and other global messaging platforms. Instead it has relied on its Telegram Premium subscription service (priced at around $4.99/month) and donations to fund development.

However, the scale of Telegram’s operations requires substantial investment, especially as the platform builds out services such as cloud storage, large file sharing, and secure communications infrastructure.

The partnership with xAI serves a number of monetisation purposes for Telegram:

1. Immediate cash injection
   xAI’s $300 million payment strengthens Telegram’s financial position, supporting its operational costs and easing reliance on debt financing. This upfront capital is critical as Telegram scales both its infrastructure and feature set.
2. Recurring subscription revenue
   Telegram will receive 50 per cent of revenue generated from xAI’s Grok subscriptions sold on the platform, establishing a new, long-term revenue stream. This reduces reliance on its Premium subscription model alone and opens a potential pathway to bundle AI services with Premium for increased value.
3. Enhanced user engagement
   Integrating Grok AI into Telegram chats is designed to increase time spent in-app, daily active users (DAUs), and user stickiness—making Telegram’s ecosystem more attractive to both consumers and potential future advertisers or service partners.
4. Product differentiation in a crowded market
   By embedding Grok AI, Telegram distinguishes itself from WhatsApp (still gradually rolling out Meta AI) and other secure messaging apps like Signal, which are unlikely to embrace AI features due to their strict privacy policies.

This strategy marks Telegram’s first serious step into AI monetisation, thus aligning with global trends that see generative AI as a key driver of platform revenue growth.

X’s monetisation strategy

Since Elon Musk purchased Twitter, now X it has been reshaping its revenue model aggressively. Historically dependent on digital advertising (which was more than 90 per cent of its pre-Musk revenue), X has seen a sharp decline in ad income amid concerns about brand safety, content moderation, and Musk’s own controversial public stances.

In response, Musk has launched a subscription-heavy mode. This pushes features like X Premium (formerly Twitter Blue), paid verification, and most recently, integration with Grok. This multi-faceted approach addresses several key monetisation goals:

1. Subscription revenue growth:
   X aims to convert as many users as possible to paying subscribers via X Premium, bundling benefits such as longer posts, fewer ads, and now, access to Grok AI. The success of Grok is seen as critical to justify this monthly subscription fee and create perceived value for users.
2. xAI monetisation beyond X:
   The Telegram deal represents xAI’s first major foray outside the X ecosystem—an essential move as Musk seeks to monetise Grok independently of X’s core platform. This reduces risk by spreading revenue potential across different platforms and user bases.
3. Data diversification for AI training:
   Integrating Grok with Telegram also provides xAI (and by extension, X Corp) with a broader conversational data set, crucial for training and improving its AI models. This AI-driven data economy may become a long-term revenue foundation, enabling the development of enterprise AI services or licensing deals.
4. New revenue-sharing ecosystem:
   The 50 per cent revenue share with Telegram suggests Musk’s willingness to create a partner-based ecosystem for Grok—potentially expanding to other platforms and apps globally. This could mimic the app store model or cloud marketplace frameworks, where X and xAI collect revenue from multiple front-end providers.
5. Long-term AI infrastructure monetisation:
   With recent investments such as the Colossus AI supercomputer project in Memphis, xAI is building the capacity to offer large-scale AI services. Expanding Grok’s reach into Telegram helps justify this infrastructure spend by growing the user base that these AI systems serve.

While both companies seek to leverage AI for growth, their underlying risks and market dynamics differ:

A mutually beneficial experiment

The $300 million partnership represents a mutually beneficial experiment for both Telegram and X. For the mobile ecosystem—including telcos and A2P messaging providers—the move signals a broader industry shift: AI-powered monetisation will soon be integral to all major messaging platforms, blurring the lines between communication, commerce, and content.

Businesses within the telecoms space must prepare for this AI-driven messaging future.

A future where bots, subscriptions, and platform partnerships will reshape both user engagement and revenue models. 

• Dario Betti is CEO of MEF (Mobile Ecosystem Forum) a global trade body established in 2000 and headquartered in the UK with members across the world. As the voice of the mobile ecosystem, it focuses on cross-industry best practices, anti-fraud and monetisation.