Tech billionaire and among the richest people in the world, Sergey Brin has gifted away nearly 4.1 million Alphabet shares worth $700 million, regulatory filings showed, Bloomberg reported. The recipient of the gift was not yet clear, it added.
Sergey Brin, who is a co-founder of tech giant Google, is worth more than $140 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index (BBI). He is among the top 10 richest people in the world.
A spokesperson for Sergey Brin’s family office did not reply to queries till time of publication, as per the report.
About Sergey Brin’s $700 million worth gifted shares
The report said that the regulatory filing did not show who got the close to 4.1 million share gift, but were evenly split between newly converted Class A and Class C stocks. It speculated that the reciepient may be a charity, trust, or financial vehicle.
Notably, Sergey Brin is known to give away shares for causes close to his heart. In 2023, after Google debuted its artificial intelligence (AI) search, he gave away $600 million worth of shares. Further, as per disclosures, he also gifted shares worth over $100 million in May 2024 and November 2024, the report added.
Besides these, Sergey Brin is a known supporter of Parkinson’s disease research, and runs a climate and health-focused nonprofit that has funded startups working on a range of areas, including psychedelics and a $155 billion energy project in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Google parent Alphabet’s Share Price on Rise
Notably, shares of Alphabet shares rose 5.6 per cent on May 21 following the announcement that Google is implementing new AI updates to Search. The product announcement was made at the company’s annual developer conference on May 20.
Google said it would roll out a new tab called “AI mode” in search to all users in the United States. The tab will also include options for direct interactions with AI models, similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Class A shares are usually given to founders and management and come with more voting rights, according to Investopedia. These may also not be available to the general public. Class B shares are “common” or “ordinary” shares listed on stock exchanges with no preferential treatment on dividing profits or dividends, according to SoFi Learn.
And Class C shares, may be those given to employees as part of their compensation package. These may have specific restrictions, on trading and voting rights. Notably, Alphabet’s Class A and Class C shares tend to trade at similar prices, it added.
Sergey Brin 10th Richest in World: BBI
According to the BBI, Sergey Brin and co-founder Larry Page, saw their fortunes rise by a combined $7 billion on May 21, and are now the 10th (worth $144.3 billion) and ninth richest ($153.2 billion) people in the world.
Sergey Brin’s fortune is largely made up of a combination of Class B and Class C shares of Alphabet, which became Google’s parent company nearly 10 years back. He has over $11 billion stock from Google’s initial public offering in 2004, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
(With inputs from Bloomberg)