Tech mogul says all offspring will inherit equally but must wait 30 years, as he pushes for self-reliance over inherited wealth.
Pavel Durov, the reclusive billionaire founder of the encrypted messaging app Telegram, has announced plans to bequeath his entire £17 billion fortune to the 106 children he claims to have fathered—both through natural conception and widespread sperm donation across 12 countries.
In an interview with Le Point magazine, the 40-year-old Russian-born entrepreneur revealed that his children—six of whom he shares with three different partners, and an estimated 100 others conceived via donation—will all have “equal rights” to his estate.
“They are all my children and will all have the same rights,” Durov stated. “I don’t want them to tear each other apart after my death.”
However, in a surprising twist, the tech mogul declared that none of his heirs will receive access to the inheritance for at least 30 years. His aim, he said, is to foster independence and personal achievement among them.
“I want them to live like normal people, to build their lives on their own, to learn to trust themselves, to be able to create—not to be dependent on a bank account,” he explained.
Durov’s unusual family structure first drew global attention last year when a Russian woman living in Switzerland claimed he had fathered her three children. Since then, the media-shy billionaire