Google’s Sergey Brin gifts shares worth $700 million

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% on Wednesday after product announcements signaled 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.