✉️ Telegram Founder #PavelDurov Gives First Interview in French to Le Point
⏺ Durov called the accusations against him "absurd", claiming he’s being punished without trial and is under a travel ban that prevents him from seeing his ill parents and newborn son.
⏺ Freedom of speech and platform neutrality remain his core principles. He emphasized that #Telegram is not for sale, having previously turned down a $1 billion offer from Google. #Durov stated he remains Telegram’s sole shareholder to preserve its independence. If anything happens to him, control will pass to a nonprofit foundation.
I never hesitated for a second. This is not about the price. Telegram isn’t a product — it’s a project. An idea. A promise of independence, privacy, and freedom given to users. Selling it would mean betraying that promise. I would never do that.
⏺ Telegram still generates no personal income for Durov and is reportedly carrying around $2 billion in debt. His wealth primarily comes from early #bitcoin investments, not from the messenger itself.
⏺ For the first time, Durov shared details of his will, stating his children will only have access to his fortune 30 years from now. He also revealed that aside from his six official children, he is the biological father of over 100 children through anonymous sperm donation.
⏺ On the topic of AI, Durov said that his brother Nikolai is developing a radically different kind of artificial intelligence — one that can truly understand and reason about the world, unlike current large language models which, according to Durov, "read a lot of text but are not actually intelligent."