Pavel Durov, the founder of the instant messaging app Telegram, says that the more than 100 children he has fathered will share his estimated fortune of $13.9 billion (£10.3 billion).
“They are all my children and will all have the same rights! I don’t want them to tear each other apart after my death,” Mr Durov told French political magazine Le Point.
Mr Durov claimed he is the “official father” of six children with three different partners, but the clinic “where I started donating sperm fifteen years ago to help a friend, told me that more than 100 babies had been conceived this way in 12 countries.
He also reiterated that he denies any wrongdoing concerning serious criminal charges he faces in France.
The self-exiled Russian technology tycoon also told the magazine that his children would not have access to their inheritance for 30 years.
I want them to live like normal people, to build themselves up alone, to learn to trust themselves, to be able to create, and not to be dependent on a bank account,” he said.
The BBC has approached Mr Durov for comment.
The 40-year-old said he had written a will now because his job “involves risks – defending freedoms earns you many enemies, including within powerful states”.
His app, Telegram, is known for its focus on privacy and encrypted messaging and has more than a billion monthly active users.
Pavel Durov also addressed the criminal charges he faces in France. He was arrested last year after being accused of failing to moderate the app to reduce criminality properly.
He has denied failing to cooperate with law enforcement over drug trafficking, child sexual abuse content and fraud. Telegram has previously denied having insufficient moderation.
In the Le Point interview, he described the charges as “totally absurd”.
“Just because criminals use our messaging service among many others doesn’t make those who run it criminals,” he added.
Russian-born Mr Durov now lives in Dubai, where Telegram is based. He holds dual citizenship of France and the United Arab Emirates.
The founder of Russian social network VKontakte said in 2014 that he had been fired after refusing the Kremlin’s requests to censor posts.
He founded Telegram in 2014, and the app remains popular in Russia.
