Sergey Brin is a leading figure in the tech world, as well as one of the richest men in the world. How much is his net worth?
Everyone knows him as the co-founder of Google: we’re talking about Sergey Brin, who, together with Larry Page, created the most famous and widely used search engine in the world, forever carving out a name for himself in the history of information technology. Brin is also a well-known entrepreneur, born in Russia and moved to the United States at a young age with his parents.
Thanks to founding Google and numerous investments in startups and technology companies, he has amassed a enormous fortune over the years, allowing him to become one of the richest men in the world. Let’s try to understand how much money Sergey Brin has and his net worth according to the latest estimates.
Who is Sergey Brin? The biography of the co-founder of Google
Sergey Brin was born in Moscow in 1973 to Jewish parents who graduated from the capital’s university. His father, Mikhail, is a mathematician, while his mother, Yevgenia, is a scientist currently working as a researcher at NASA. When Brin was just six years old, his parents decided to move to the United States to teach at the University of Maryland. Meanwhile, Sergey decided to study mathematics and computer science at the same school where his parents taught, eventually graduating with honors from the same university.
Feeling uneasy, he decided to move to Stanford to pursue a PhD in computer science: it was there that he first met Larry Page, who would later become his business partner.
Regarding his personal life, Brin has been married since 2007 to Anne Wojcicki, a biotechnology analyst, with whom he had a son in 2008 and a daughter in 2011. In 2013, he separated from his wife following an affair with the marketing director of the Google Glass project, and officially divorced in 2015.
The Birth of Google
The idea of creating a new, faster and more advanced search engine emerged between 1997 and 1998, when Larry and Sergey were conducting a joint research project and were feeling particularly frustrated with existing search engines.
After drafting a development plan, the two met at the university with Andy Bechtolsheim, a Sun Microsystems investor and former student, to pitch their innovative idea. By doing so, they quickly managed to secure a first check for $100,000 to develop their project. However, this funding wasn’t enough to complete an innovative and fast search engine. Fortunately, the two co-founders managed to secure a further total funding of $25 billion from two of the most important venture capital firms in the United States: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital.
Hence, Google was born, a word derived from the term "googol," coined by mathematician Edward Kasner (1878-1955) to indicate a very large number. The two founders intended to use this term to refer to the numerous pages and information it contained. It seems that Larry and Sergey actually intended to use the name "googol," but when registering the domain, they made a typo, and by the time they realized it, it was too late.
Within just five years of its founding, Google was already the world’s most used search engine, with approximately 112 million searches per day, while its main competitor (Yahoo!) only reached 42 million.
How much is Sergey Brin worth?
Sergey Brin’s net worth is estimated at around $148.9 billion, according to Forbes and Economy Magazine. Most of his fortune comes from his stake in Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, where he, along with co-founder Larry Page, holds 51% of the voting shares and 12% of the total shares.
Over the course of his career, Sergey Brin has earned significant salaries of varying amounts depending on his role and position. To date, however, he has waived the nominal salary of $1 provided for his role as chairman of Alphabet.
Beyond his salary, Brin has diversified his income by investing in numerous startups and tech companies to expand his portfolio, earning significant sums. This has allowed him to enter the list of the richest people in the world and become one of the most influential entrepreneurs of his time.
Finally, through the Brin Wojcicki Foundation, Brin actively supports numerous charitable causes, including Parkinson’s disease research and technology education.
Original article published on Money.it Italy. Original title: Chi è e quanti soldi ha Sergey Brin, co-fondatore di Google?
