Telegram founder leaves $14bn to his 100 children

The founder of the popular instant messaging app Telegram, Pavel Durov, has revealed his plans to leave his entire fortune, estimated at $13.9 billion, to his 100 biological children.

“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,” Mr Durov, whose app is used by over a billion people worldwide, told French political magazine Le Point.

The Telegram founder said he was the “official father” of six children by three different partners, but the clinic, where I started donating sperm 15 years ago to help a friend, told me that more than 100 babies had been conceived this way in 12 countries.”  

However, he said in his eyes, there’s no difference between his 100 children. “I want to specify that I make no difference between my children: some were conceived naturally, and those who come from my sperm donations.”

‘My work involves risks’

Durov, a 40-year-old Russian tech entrepreneur from Leningrad, clarified that the wealth will remain accessible to all of his children for three decades.

“I decided that my children would not have access to my fortune until a period of 30 years has elapsed, starting from today,” Durov 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.”

According to a Bloomberg report, Durov is worth an estimated $13.9 billion, but he dismissed such estimates as “theoretical,” telling Le Point: “Since I’m not selling Telegram, it doesn’t matter. I don’t have this money in a bank account. My liquid assets are much lower – and they don’t come from Telegram: they come from my investment in bitcoin in 2013.”

When asked why he decided to write his will now, Durov, who lives in Dubai, said, “My work involves risks – defending freedoms earns you many enemies, including within powerful states. I want to protect my children, as well as the company I created, Telegram. I want Telegram to remain forever faithful to the values I defend.”

In 2024, Durov was arrested in Paris on charges relating to a host of crimes, including allegations that his platform was complicit in aiding money launderers, drug traffickers and people spreading child pornography.

‘A manipulation tactic’

He responded to those charges, saying, “Just because criminals use our messaging service among many others doesn’t make those who run it criminals.” 

Earlier this year, Durov defended Telegram’s record on tackling child abuse in a post on X, where he wrote that “Since 2018, Telegram has fought child abuse in many ways: content fingerprint bans, dedicated moderation teams, NGO hotlines, and daily transparency reports on banned content – all verifiable.”

“Falsely implying Telegram did nothing to remove child porn is a manipulation tactic.”

A Telegram spokesperson told BBC News that the app was “not effective for the spread of harmful content because it does not use algorithms that promote sensational materials like those used on other platforms”.

In the UK, the app was scrutinised for hosting far-right channels that were instrumental in organising the violent disorder in English cities last summer.

Telegram did remove some groups, but overall, its system of moderating extremist and illegal content is significantly weaker than that of other social media companies and messenger apps, according to cybersecurity experts.

All calls for violence removed

The app says it has “removed all channels found sharing calls for violence”, and it denies that its system of moderation is weaker than others’. “This is false,” its spokesperson said. “Telegram’s moderation meets or exceeds all industry standards.”

“Telegram blocks tens of thousands of groups and channels daily and removes millions of pieces of content that violate its Terms of Service, including incitement to violence, sharing child abuse materials, and trading illegal goods,” the app says on its website site.