Telegram Messenger Founder Pavel Durov
Forbes Estimates His Fortune at 25 Trillion Won
Telegram Messenger founder Pavel Durov is in the spotlight. He has openly stated that, through sperm donation, he has more than 100 children across 12 countries worldwide.
On December 23, Yonhap News reported, citing The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in the United States, on Durov's disclosure about his children. In a post on Telegram in July last year, he revealed that he began donating sperm around 2010, and that as a result, he now has over 100 children in at least 12 countries who were conceived using his sperm.
Officially, he is known to have six children with three different women. Although he stopped donating sperm several years ago, his frozen sperm is still stored at a fertility clinic in Moscow.
Durov has described his sperm donation as an effort to alleviate the shortage of healthy sperm and to encourage other men to do the same.
The clinic storing Durov's sperm promotes that "in vitro fertilization (IVF) using the sperm of the famous entrepreneur and successful businessman Pavel Durov is available free of charge." A doctor who previously worked at this clinic told the WSJ that the women who came to receive Durov's sperm "were all very attractive, highly educated, and in good health," and added that "to avoid legal issues, they had to be single."
In June last year, Durov stated in an interview with a French weekly magazine that he would leave his inheritance equally to his biological children. In October, he also appeared on American scientist Lex Fridman's podcast, saying, "If it can be established that someone shares my DNA, then perhaps 30 years from now, after I pass away, they may be eligible to receive a portion of my inheritance."
Pavel Durov caused controversy last October by entering a lake within a national park in Kazakhstan, an area where swimming is prohibited. TCA capture Yonhap News Photo
According to Forbes, his fortune is estimated at 17 billion dollars (25 trillion won), most of which is based on the value of Telegram. Regarding Durov's extensive sperm donation, the WSJ analyzed it as an attempt to push the boundaries of reproductive ethics and technology.
However, the report also pointed out that it overlooked potential issues such as identity confusion among the offspring born from indiscriminate sperm donation, as well as various other problems that may arise among them. Durov's actions align with the desires of some to have children with specific traits through genetic testing and gene editing, potentially leading to the birth of second, third, and fourth "Durovs."
Meanwhile, last October, Durov wrote on X (formerly Twitter), "While we sleep, a dark and dystopian world is rapidly approaching," adding, "We have embarked on a path of moral, intellectual, economic, and ultimately biological self-destruction."
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