Telegram eyes $1.5 billion bond issuance after netting $300 million from xAI Grok deal

Telegram intends to raise $1.5 billion from a bond issuance, the Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter. The move comes as the crypto-friendly messaging platform brings in $300 million through a cash and equity deal to integrate xAI’s Grok chatbot across its app.

Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of Telegram, said he struck a partnership with xAI creator Elon Musk that “strengthens Telegram’s financial position.” Telegram will earn 50% of the revenue from xAI subscriptions sold via the messaging platform, Durov said on X.

Last year, Durov was arrested in France on charges related to alleged illicit activity on Telegram. The Russian entrepreneur, charged on twelve counts including violations related to alleged drug trafficking, child exploitation, and money laundering, left the country in March 2025 after being placed under judicial supervision.

Toncoin, the native token for The Open Network (TON), spiked 18.7% from about $2.99 to $3.55, according to The Block’s TON Price Page. Toncoin maintains a market capitalization of $8.6 billion.

Citadel will join Telegram’s existing investors BlackRock and Mubadala, an investment firm owned by Abu Dhabi, as a bondholder, as part of the $1.5 billion fundraise, according to the WSJ. Telegram will use the bond issue revenue in part to purchase outstanding debt from a previous lot of bonds issued in 2021, after already buying back $400 million worth of bonds issued in 2021. The newly issued five-year bonds will pay a 9% yield.

As for its deal with xAI, Telegram will integrate the Grok chatbot across its platform during its one-year partnership, Durov wrote on X on Wednesday. xAI is an artificial intelligence firm developing the chatbot Grok. The firm is connected to the social media platform X, which billionaire Elon Musk bought in April 2022 in a $44 billion deal, The Block previously reported.

Durov noted that user data on Telegram will not be used to train Grok, adding that this topic was not discussed in the deal. Only “Secret Chats” on Telegram, which passed 1 billion monthly users in 2025, are fully end-to-end encrypted.

Meanwhile, the TON Foundation — an independent organization overseeing the growth of the Telegram-focused Layer 1 TON blockchain network — is plotting a global payments expansion. On Wednesday, the foundation hired former Visa executive Nikola Plecas as its vice president of payments. In March, a group of VCs including Sequoia Capital, Ribbit, and Benchmark purchased $400 million worth of Toncoin tokens, The Block previously reported.