Google co-founder Sergey Brin, tapping a personal fortune that exceeds $140 billion, gave nearly $700 million in Alphabet Inc. shares away as a gift.
The contribution was disclosed Wednesday in a regulatory filing, which didn’t specify who received the roughly 4.1 million shares. The sum, evenly split between newly converted Class A and Class C stock, could be directed to charity or given to financial vehicles or trusts.
A spokesperson for Brin’s family office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The disclosure comes on a good day for Alphabet shareholders. The stock rose as much as 5.6 per cent on Wednesday after product announcements signalled that the company is adapting to the AI age. At its annual developer conference on Tuesday, Google said it would roll out a new tab called “AI mode” in search to all US users. The tab is a place where users can interact directly with AI models, similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
The stock gift extends a pattern for Brin, who offloaded roughly $600 million in 2023 following the debut of Google’s AI search — also around the time of Google’s developer conference. He disclosed additional gifts of shares worth more than $100 million in May and November of last year.
Brin often gives to support research into Parkinson’s disease and also has a climate and health-focused nonprofit. It has bankrolled startups working on everything from psychedelics to an ambitious $155 billion dollar project to build “energy islands” in Copenhagen.
Brin and co-founder Larry Page, who stepped down from top management roles in 2019, saw their fortunes rise by a combined $7 billion on Wednesday. Brin is currently the 10th-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $144.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He trails Page, the world’s ninth-richest, with a $153.2 billion fortune.
Brin’s worth is largely made up of a combination of Class B and Class C shares of Alphabet, which became Google’s parent company a decade ago. He’s sold more than $11 billion worth of shares since Google’s initial public offering in 2004, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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