DUBAI, UAE — Pavel Durov, the founder of the encrypted messaging platform Telegram, has revealed that all of his approximately 106 biological children will inherit equal shares of his estimated $13.9 billion (£10.3 billion) fortune.
In an interview with Le Point, a French political magazine, the Russian-born tech billionaire said, “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.”
Durov, 40, disclosed that while he is the “official father” of six children with three different partners, he learned from a fertility clinic that over 100 babies have been conceived from his sperm donations made over the past 15 years in 12 countries.
He said he initially began donating sperm to help a friend.
The Telegram founder explained that although the children will be entitled to his wealth, they would not be granted access to their inheritance for three decades.
“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,” he said.
Durov, who now resides in Dubai and holds dual citizenship of France and the United Arab Emirates, said he drafted a will because of the nature of his work.
“My job involves risks – defending freedoms earns you many enemies, including within powerful states.”
Telegram, which he founded in 2013 after his ouster from VKontakte — Russia’s largest social network — is now used by over one billion people monthly and is known for its privacy-focused and encrypted messaging services.
The app remains popular in Russia and has become a global communication tool.
However, the platform has also attracted criticism and legal scrutiny for allegedly insufficient moderation of extremist and criminal content.
Durov faces serious charges in France, where he was arrested last year.
Authorities accuse him of failing to sufficiently moderate Telegram to prevent drug trafficking, child sexual abuse material, and financial fraud.
In the interview, Durov dismissed the charges as “totally absurd.”
“Just because criminals use our messaging service among many others doesn’t make those who run it criminals,” he said, asserting that Telegram does cooperate with law enforcement within the scope of its privacy policy.
Telegram’s moderation practices have come under fire from governments and security experts.
In the United Kingdom, the app was investigated for hosting far-right channels accused of inciting public disorder in several cities last year.
While Telegram removed some of those groups, experts argue its approach to moderating extremist or illegal content remains weaker than that of other major tech firms.
Durov, often referred to as “Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg,” rose to prominence in the early 2010s as the founder of VKontakte, before leaving Russia after refusing Kremlin demands to censor political content.
Telegram has since positioned itself as a defender of free speech and user privacy — a stance that continues to attract both support and scrutiny worldwide.
