Telegram CEO Pavel Durov
Telegram co-founder and CEO Pavel Durov has revealed that he plans to divide his $17.1 billion fortune equally among all of his children, but said they cannot have access to his vast fortune till 2055.
He said children he officially fathered and those born through anonymous sperm donations, would have equal access to his wealth, but not for the next 30 years.
In an interview with French publication Le Point, Durov, 40, explained that he recently finalized his will to reflect this decision, saying all his children, regardless of how they were conceived, will have the same rights to his estate.
According to Durov, he has six officially recognized children from three different partners, and he has also been donating sperm anonymously to fertility clinics in different countries. As a result, more than 100 children have been born across 12 countries through these donations. He considers all of them his children and says they will be treated equally in his will.
Despite promising them equal inheritance, Durov has included a strict condition: none of his children will have access to his fortune for the next 30 years. He believes that delaying access to the inheritance will help them grow up without relying on wealth and encourage them to build their lives independently. In his words, “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.”
Durov also said he decided to write his will now because of the risks involved in his role as the head of Telegram, a platform that often faces pressure from governments and is known for defending digital freedom and user privacy. He revealed that if something happens to him, Telegram will be taken over by a non-profit foundation to ensure the platform continues to operate independently and uphold its core values.
Telegram has seen major growth in recent years. The company is now profitable, generating more than $1 billion in revenue, with over 12 million premium subscribers and $500 million in cash reserves, not including its cryptocurrency holdings.
Last month, Telegram announced a $300 million investment deal with Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI. The partnership includes both cash and equity, and will bring xAI’s Grok chatbot to Telegram’s ecosystem for one year. As part of the deal, Telegram will receive 50% of the revenue generated from xAI subscriptions on its platform, marking a major step in the integration of AI with messaging apps.
