My over 100 kids won’t have access to my fortune until after 30 years – Telegram CEO

Pavel Durov, the billionaire founder and CEO of Telegram, says his over 100 children will inherit his fortune.

In July 2024, Durov revealed that his path to fatherhood began unexpectedly 15 years ago when a close friend struggling with infertility asked for his help.

He disclosed that what started as a one-time sperm donation soon turned into a recurring commitment after a clinic informed him of the severe shortage of high-quality donor material.

The self-exiled Russian technology tycoon added that, over the years, his sperm donations have helped more than a hundred couples from 12 countries build their families.

In addition to these donor-conceived offspring, the Telegram founder has six naturally conceived children with three different partners.

In a recent interview with French political magazine Le Point, Durov revealed that he recently wrote his will, but none of his children — whether biological or donor-conceived — will access their inheritance until after thirty years.

The 40-year-old added that he wants his kids to “live like normal people, to build themselves up alone”.

“It has great importance. I wrote my will very recently, I decided that my children would not have access to my fortune until a period of thirty years has elapsed, starting from today,” he said.

“I want them to live like normal people, to build themselves up alone, to learn to trust themselves, to be able to create, not to be dependent on a bank account.

“I want to specify that I make no difference between my children: there are those who were conceived naturally and those who come from my sperm donations. They are all my children and will all have the same rights! I don’t want them to tear each other apart after my death.

“Six of whom I am the official father, whom I had with three different partners. The others come from my anonymous donation. The clinic, where I started donating sperm fifteen years ago to help a friend, told me that more than 100 babies had been conceived this way in 12 countries.”.

According to Forbes, Durov’s net worth currently stands at $17.1 billion, and he is the 133rd richest person in the world.

He founded Telegram in 2014, and the app remains popular in Russia.