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Telegram is nary longer conscionable a privacy-first chat app for crypto bros. With a melodramatic one-two punch, a $300 cardinal confederation with Elon Musk’s xAI and a $1.5 cardinal high-yield enslaved raise, Telegram has moved from insurgent level to nett engine.
TON jumped 15% aft Durov confirmed the collaboration.
Yet its future, including IPO prospects, remains hostage to a ineligible tangle playing retired successful French courts.
Musk’s Grok gets exclusive location connected Telegram, for a Price
In a headline-grabbing move, Telegram announced an exclusive organisation statement with xAI that volition embed Grok, Musk’s LLM chatbot, into the level for 1 year. The terms: xAI volition wage $300 cardinal successful cash, arsenic good arsenic equity and 50% of each Grok-related subscription gross generated done Telegram.
“Together, we triumph 
,” posted CEO Pavel Durov, celebrating what helium framed arsenic a platform-defining moment. The determination marks Telegram’s archetypal large monetisation of its 1 cardinal monthly progressive users (MAUs) – a crisp pivot from its historically donation- and debt-fuelled operations.
Durov has insisted that Grok integration won’t compromise idiosyncratic data: “No Telegram information volition beryllium supplied for Grok training,” helium wrote. The woody puts Telegram up of rivals similar WhatsApp and Snapchat, who’ve struggled to extract gross from AI features wrong messaging ecosystems.
From cash-burn to currency flow: The astonishment nett surge
Telegram besides disclosed its first-ever profit: $540 cardinal successful 2024, connected gross of $1.4 billion. This fig marks a melodramatic turnaround from anterior years, erstwhile the institution operated astatine a steep loss. With 15 cardinal paying users and integrated maturation of 2.5 cardinal users per day, 2025 gross is forecasted astatine $2 billion, with nett exceeding $700 million.
For investors, the metrics yet validate Telegram’s long-gestating monetisation model.
Along with announcing its AI deal, Telegram completed an oversubscribed $1.5 cardinal enslaved offering astatine a 9% yield, with large backers including BlackRock, Citadel, and Mubadala, according to WSJ. The five-year insubstantial refinances indebtedness from a 2021 convertible enactment and includes an IPO-linked conversion sweetener, an implicit stake that Telegram volition spell nationalist earlier 2030.
The bond’s occurrence amazed immoderate marketplace watchers, particularly fixed CEO Durov’s ongoing ineligible entanglements. But investors look consenting to terms that hazard arsenic sound against Telegram’s portion economics and maturation profile.
The Paris Problem: Legal unreality implicit Durov looms large
Despite operational momentum, a important unreality looms implicit Telegram’s prospects: laminitis Pavel Durov’s apprehension successful France successful August 2024 and consequent indictment connected 12 preliminary charges, including non-cooperation with kid information investigations.
Durov remains nether judicial supervision and is barred from leaving France. A May 12 tribunal ruling blocked his planned travel to the U.S. to conscionable investors. “We complied with each the binding ineligible requests we received,” Durov told the WSJ. “Up until this day, we don’t recognize what we did wrong.”
The ineligible lawsuit could hold oregon derail IPO ambitions, rise governance concerns, and complicate planetary level operations. It besides emphasizes broader regulatory questions astir the liabilities of end-to-end encrypted app providers.
IPO oregon Bridge? What the Grok and enslaved deals truly signal
Is Telegram present connected a glide way to IPO? Possibly, but not inevitably. The bond’s conversion diagnostic suggests that astatine slightest the enactment remains alive. But immoderate analysts reason the high-yield rise could beryllium a span oregon adjacent a hedge, a mode to fastener successful maturation without public-market scrutiny portion Durov navigates his ineligible peril.
The one-year Grok integration, too, carries unfastened questions: Will AI subs stick? Can xAI deliver? Will regulators scrutinise the information furniture contempt Durov’s assurances? And if Musk stumbles, what becomes of the promised $300 million?
Still, with its level pivot, Telegram has shed the representation of a burning-money outlier. Whether it becomes a nationalist tech titan oregon a cautionary communicative whitethorn beryllium arsenic overmuch connected courtroom outcomes arsenic connected product-market fit.
Telegram Timeline
- Aug 24, 2024: Durov arrested successful Paris
- Mar 19, 2025: Telegram hits 1B MAUs
- May 12, 2025: French tribunal bars Durov’s US trip
- May 28, 2025: xAI–Telegram Grok woody announced
- May 28, 2025: $1.5B enslaved priced astatine 9% yield
Bottom Line
Telegram’s summertime surge, marked by AI monetisation and a bold indebtedness raise, signals a institution evolving into a sustainable business. But Durov’s ineligible unreality whitethorn beryllium the eventual adaptable successful whether Telegram becomes the adjacent large tech IPO oregon a cautionary communicative of level governance successful the property of encryption.
The station TON jumps 16% arsenic Telegram gets $300M positive xAI equity to integrate Grok appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.
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