Telegram raises $1.5 billion in bonds and reaches $300 million AI partnership with xAI

Telegram reportedly plans to issue five-year bonds to raise $1.5 billion to repurchase debt issued in 2021 and due in March 2026. The annual interest rate of the bonds is 9%, attracting participation from existing investors including Blackstone Group, Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, and newly joined hedge fund Citadel. In addition, bondholders will have the right to convert into shares at a discount when Telegram goes public in the future.

Although CEO Pavel Durov was restricted from leaving the country for allegedly failing to cooperate with the French police investigation, Telegram achieved a profit of $540 million in 2024 and revenue of $1.4 billion. Monthly active users exceeded 1 billion, and paying users exceeded 15 million. The company expects profits to grow to $700 million and revenue to $2 billion in 2025.

On the same day, Telegram announced a one-year strategic cooperation agreement with xAI, an artificial intelligence company owned by Elon Musk. Under the agreement, xAI will invest $300 million in Telegram in the form of cash and equity. In return, Telegram will integrate xAI's AI chatbot Grok in its application and receive 50% of the revenue from xAI subscriptions sold through the Telegram platform.

Pavel Durov, CEO of Telegram, announced the news on the social platform X (formerly Twitter), saying: "This summer, Telegram users will be able to use the most advanced AI technology on the market." He also emphasized that Grok will be integrated into all Telegram applications, and users can interact with Grok through the search bar, get writing suggestions, chat summaries, summaries of links and documents, and create stickers and other functions.

Grok is an AI chatbot developed by xAI, which aims to provide real-time Q&A, text editing, chat and document summarization, inbox assistant, group chat management and other functions. The cooperation with Telegram will enable Grok's services to cover more than 1 billion Telegram users, further expanding its global influence.

These two initiatives of Telegram mark its significant progress in the financial and technological fields. Through bond financing, Telegram was able to optimize its capital structure; while the cooperation with xAI demonstrated its intention to expand in the field of artificial intelligence. Despite the challenges, Telegram is still actively advancing its global expansion and technological innovation strategy.