Billionaires like Telegram founder Pavel Durov and Tesla CEO Elon Musk have fathered legions of children who are slated to inherit their empires. Now, an ultra-wealthy Chinese businessman is doing the same in the U.S., in hopes of producing around 20 U.S.-born children to inherit his video game fortune.
Xu Bo is the founder and chairman of Guangzhou Duoyi Network: one of China’s largest mobile gaming companies. Despite the 48-year-old entrepreneur growing his company in Guangzhou, he’s not looking to pass down his $1.1 billion fortune to a child born in his home country. A Wall Street Journal investigation into Xu’s surrogacy history in the U.S. found that the Chinese billionaire was seeking parental rights to at least four unborn children, and had previously fathered and was actively fathering at least eight more surrogacy kids. There could be dozens more.
The billionaire’s video game company had also reportedly stated that Xu has more than 100 children born through surrogates based in the U.S., according to WSJ reporting. He was allegedly seeking “50 high-quality sons,” according to accounts linked to Xu on Chinese microblogging website Weibo, and said that “having more children can solve all problems.” During a 2023 court hearing, Xu also said he hoped to have around 20 U.S.-born children to one day take over his business, according to WSJ. He also fantasized about his American kids marrying Musk’s children in the future. Last month, Xu’s ex-girlfriend also alleged that he had 300 children living around the world—a claim his company denied.
Xu’s Duoyi Network has since made a statement against the Journal, stating the publication had “deliberately confused the facts and fabricated false information,” and that only 12 of the alleged 100-plus children were born in the U.S.
Another billionaire fathering 100+ heirs: Telegram founder Pavel Durvo
Xu is among a growing number of ultra-rich men parenting dozens of children to shepherd their companies and expand their legacies. And just like Xu, the video game billionaire, Telegram founder Pavel Durvo has helped conceive over 100 babies across 12 countries.
Officially, the entrepreneur worth $14.2 billion has six “official” children with three different partners. In addition to this parentage, Durov has also been donating to a sperm clinic for the past 15 years, which told him has led to more than 100 pregnancies.
“I wrote my will very recently,” Durov told French publication Le Point in an interview this June. “I make no difference between my children: There are those who were conceived naturally and those who come from my sperm donations. 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.”
