Topline

The billionaire founder of Telegram is offering to pay for the in vitro fertilization process of medically eligible women who are interested in having a baby using his sperm at a fertility clinic in Moscow, the latest billionaire to speak openly about his desire to widely reproduce.

Key Facts

Pavel Durov, worth an estimated $15.5 billion as of Tuesday, is offering to cover the cost of IVF treatment for interested, healthy women under the age of 38 who will use his sperm to have a baby using the Altra Vita IVF clinic, which claims it has the exclusive right to store and use his biomaterial.

The clinic describes the offer as “a very generous contribution to society” from “one of the most famous and successful entrepreneurs of our time.”

In July, Durov said he’s had more than 100 biological children in 12 countries via sperm bank donations he’s made over the last 15 years, and announced his plan to “open-source my DNA so that my biological children can find each other more easily.”

He said he was once told by someone at an IVF clinic it was his “civic duty” to donate sperm to help couples trying to conceive, and said he now wants to “destigmatize” the notion of sperm donation and encourage more healthy men to do so.

He also has five children with two ex-girlfriends.

Durov was arrested in France in August and has been forbidden to leave the country as authorities investigate charges of enabling criminal activity on his messaging app, including claims he allowed drug trafficking, fraud and the sharing of child pornography.

Key Background

Durov, 40, and his older brother developed Telegram, a secure messaging app with more than 950 million users, in 2013. He left his home country of Russia—where Telegram was banned from 2018 to 2021—after refusing to provide encrypted data on users of the first social networking site he founded, called VKontakte. He became a French citizen in 2021 but lived in Dubai, where he was once the youngest and richest billionaire in the Middle East, until his August arrest. His arrest is part of an investigation into Telegram’s content moderation practices and comes amid claims the app has not properly cooperated with law enforcement when the app is used for criminal activity, particularly child sex crimes. A month after his arrest, Durov said Telegram had removed “problematic content” and would take a more proactive approach going forward in complying with government requests.

Tangent

Durov isn’t the only high-profile sperm donor who’s been open about his desire to widely reproduce. Last year, courts had to order Dutch crypto investor and YouTuber Jonathan Meijer to stop donating sperm after he was suspected of fathering more than 550 children. Kyle Gordy, who was featured in the documentary “The Man with 1000 Kids,” told Netflix he thinks he has about 70 children via sperm donation. Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, has 10 children with three different women, at least five of which were conceived using IVF. He has said that he believes in vitro fertilization is a more efficient way to have children, and has called a collapsing birth rate the “biggest danger civilization faces by far.” Billionaire and president-elect Donald Trump earlier this year said he would support public funding for in vitro fertilization or mandate it be covered by insurance, which could broaden the use of procedures that can currently cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Forbes Valuation

Durov was ranked as the 141st richest person in the world Tuesday with a net worth of $15.5 billion.