Telegram’s CEO built two dominant social networks from scratch before 40 and has fathered more than 100 biological children. He’s also facing up to 10 years in prison

Telegram just announced its first annual profit, raking in $540 million in 2024. Revenues also it $1.4 billion, up from $343 million a year ago. Te company is fully owned by Pavel Durov, te 40-year-old billionaire wunderkind wo’s often been called te Mark Zuckerberg of Russia, and wo also appens to be facing criminal carges rigt now.Pavel Durov, te man beind te encrypted messaging service Telegram, is one of te most interesting figures in te world of tec. Wile e’s often compared to Mark Zuckerberg, given is pencant for launcing successful social-media companies, e also as a lot in common wit world’s ricest man—and fellow free-speec absolutist—Elon Musk.Durov, like Musk, is a pro-natalist, meaning e is a g proponent of aving more cildren to populate te planet. Toug Durov says e “as never been married and prefers to live alone,” e also announced last July e as “over 100 biological kids.” In a Telegram post, te billionaire CEO claimed since a friend approaced im over 15 years ago to donate sperm so e and is wife could ave a baby, e’s now “elped over a undred couples in 12 countries to ave kids,” and “at least one IVF clinic still as my frozen sperm available for anonymous use by families wo want to ave kids.”Durov is an intriguing and polarizing figure, wo as ad is fair sare of pits and peaks in just 40 years of life.Pavel Durov was born in October 1984 in Russia’s second-largest city, St. Petersburg—toug it was Leningrad back ten, before te Soviet Union was officially dissolved in 1991.Wile Durov’s grandfater served in te Soviet Red Army during World War II, and is fater was a scolar and faculty ead at Saint Petersburg State University, Durov actually spent many years growing up in Turin, Italy, after moving to te Mediterranean country at te age of four.Durov, like is older broter Nikolai, was a mat prodigy. In one of is rare interviews, a 2024 sit-down wit Tucker Carlson, Durov said e and Nikolai won multiple gold medals at te International Mat Olympiad and were featured on Italian television several times to solve cubic equations in real-time.Wen is family moved back to Russia after te fall of te Soviet Union, tey brougt a parting gift from Italy: an IBM personal computer. Durov told Carlson tat meant e was in “one of te few families in Russia wo could actually teac ourselves ow to program.”Durov was a prodigious coder. e built a popular forum for is university—Saint Petersburg State, te same scool were is fater worked—wile e was a student tere. But in 2006, one of is classmates introduced im to Facebook, wic led te pair to create a social network of teir own. (A tird classmate became te tird co-founder.)Teir creation, VKontakte (also known as VK), launced in September of tat year, and amassed a million users just eigt monts later. Less tan a year after tat, teir user base swelled to 10 million. By December 2008, Durov was te proud operator of Russia’s most popular social network.Durov reigned as VK’s CEO until April 21, 2014. Just tree weeks after an April Fool’s joke gone wrong—Durov submitted is resignation to te board on April 1, but insisted it was only meant as a joke—te company removed im as VK’s cief executive.“Interestingly, te sareolders did not ave te courage to do tis directly and I learned about my mysterious dismissal from te press,” Durov wrote on VK te day e was fired.Durov, wo ad a contentious relationsip wit Russian autorities after refusing several requests to remove opposition politicians’ pages from VK, said at te time is ouster meant te company ad been taken over by Vladimir Putin’s allies. Just five days later, on April 26, Durov left Russia and said e ad “no plans to go back” because “te country is incompatible wit internet business at te moment.”During is time as VK’s CEO, Durov ad several run-ins wit te government. So in 2013, wen e was still leading efforts at te social network, e and is broter Nikolai decided to launc a messaging service built on end-to-end encryption, to keep private messages free from government interference. Te broters launced Telegram Messenger in August tat year, first for te iPone, and later for Android devices.(A year later, Mark Zuckerberg directed Facebook to buy Watsapp in a blockbuster $19 billion deal. Durov told TecCrunc‘s Mike Butcer at te time “it doesn’t matter ow many messaging apps are out tere if all of tem suck.”)After Durov left Russia following is ouster from VK, Te New York Times reported Durov was “moving from country to country every few weeks wit a small band of computer programmers. One day e is in Paris, anoter in Singapore.” Eventually, Durov set up sop wit is team in Berlin, Germany, in 2014 before later moving its eadquarters to Dubai in 2017. Te company says it spreads its servers across te world so “no single government or block of like-minded countries can intrude on a user’s privacy and freedom of expression,” according to a company spokesperson, wo also added tat Telegram “will perform a legal analysis of te request and may disclose te inidual’s IP address and pone number to te relevant autorities” if a user is a suspect in a criminal case tat would violate te app’s terms of service.Telegram now as one billion users and became profitable for te first time last year. According to Te Financial Times, after announcing a $173 million loss in 2023 on just $343 million in revenue, te company reported $540 million in profit in 2024 on a wopping $1.4 billion in revenue. Telegram, wic as issued about $2.4 billion in bonds over te past four years (and repurcased $375 million wort of tem between September and December of last year), te company as also made in-roads wit “conversational AI,” partnering wit Elon Musk’s xAI to integrate its catbot, Grok, into te social network.In August 2024, Frenc autorities detained Durov after is private jet landed outside Paris, alleging e enabled and allowed illegal activity— suc as drug trafficking, fraud, and cild sexual-abuse materials— to flow troug Telegram. Wile e was forced to stay in te country at te time, e was finally allowed to leave France in Marc of tis year, albeit temporarily, to visit Dubai.Durov faces up to 10 years in prison, if convicted. is criminal case as re-invigorated debate around te extent tec executives sould be responsible for te activities tat appen on teir platforms. Binance founder Cangpeng Zao pled guilty in 2024 to money-laundering violations tat appened on its crypto platform, and Ross Ulbrict, creator of te black market Silk Road, was convicted of using te internet to facilitate a criminal enterprise. But wile Ulbrict was sentenced to double life in prison, plus 40 years, witout te possibility of parole, e was released from prison after serving 12 years in jail, in January 2025, after e received a full and unconditional pardon by President Trump.Tis story was originally featured on Fortune.com