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Billionaire Telegram founder leaves his $14 billion fortune to the 100+ children he’s fathered
$132 million for each lucky Gen Alpha kid
Over 100 Gen Alpha kids are set to one day become overnight millionaires, and they may not even know it.
That’s because the 40-year-old Telegram founder, Pavel Durov, has six “official” children with three different partners. But he’s also been donating to a sperm clinic for 15 years, which told him he has helped conceive over 100 babies across 12 countries. And luckily for them, they’ve just been included in Durov’s $13.9 billion will, despite potentially not knowing their wealthy biological father.
“I wrote my will very recently,” Durov told French publication Le Point in a recent interview. “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.”
That means his at least 106 children could each earn around $132 million for being related to the Russian-born entrepreneur. But they’ll have to wait a long time before inheriting that fortune.
“I decided that my children would not have access to my fortune until a period of 30 years has elapsed, starting from today,” Durov continued. “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.”
Give Legacy, a sperm and fertility clinic, tells Fortune whether or not these offspring know they’re set for the windfall from their biological dad depends on whether Durov was a “directed donor,” known to the birth parent, or an “anonymous donor” with tighter regulations.
“Identity verification is reasonably straightforward. Paternity tests can confirm that Pavel is the father,” says Khaled Kteily, CEO of Give Legacy. “Anyone who believes that Pavel is their biological father could submit a sample to verify. Depending on each country’s laws as well as relationships with the birth mother, the child could already be made aware.”
Who is Durov—and what are the controversies with Telegram?
Russian-born Durov founded Telegram in 2013—a messaging app divorced from government-requested censorship. But he had to flee his home country in 2014 after refusing to comply with demands to shut down opposition communities on another popular communications platform he had founded, VKontakte. Once he left, he invested all his energy into building up Telegram.
https://fortune.com/2025/06/20/telegram-founder-pavel-durov-100-kids-will-132-million-each/