Sergey Brin co-founded Google (now Alphabet) together with Larry Page. He controls the company tightly via a dual share ownership structure (made of Class A and B stocks). Alphabet is worth over a trillion dollars, valuing Sergey Brin’s stake at over $140 billion at the current Alphabet’s market cap.
Category
Details
Full Name
Sergey Mikhailovich Brin
Date of Birth
August 21, 1973
Place of Birth
Moscow, Soviet Union (now Russia)
Nationality
American (naturalized)
Education
Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Maryland, Master of Science in Computer Science from Stanford University
Early Career
Researcher in data mining and web search at Stanford, Published influential papers on web search and data extraction
Major Companies Founded
Google, Alphabet Inc.
Positions
Co-founder of Google, Former President of Alphabet Inc.
Net Worth
Estimated over $140 billion (as of 2024)
Business Milestones
– 1998: Co-founded Google with Larry Page while pursuing a Ph.D. at Stanford University. – 2000: Launched the Google AdWords program, revolutionizing online advertising. – 2004: Took Google public with an initial public offering (IPO), raising $1.67 billion. – 2006: Acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion, expanding Google’s reach into video content. – 2011: Stepped down as President of Technology to focus on special projects, succeeded by Larry Page as CEO. – 2015: Co-founded Alphabet Inc., restructuring Google and its subsidiaries under a new parent company, with Brin becoming President of Alphabet. – 2016: Continued to drive innovation through Alphabet’s “moonshot” projects, including self-driving cars (Waymo), life sciences (Verily), and high-altitude balloons for internet access (Loon). – 2018: Announced the first commercial launch of the autonomous ride-hailing service Waymo One. – 2019: Stepped down as President of Alphabet, transitioning to a board member role, while Sundar Pichai became CEO of both Google and Alphabet. – 2020: Focused on philanthropic efforts through the Brin Wojcicki Foundation, supporting education, health, and research initiatives. – 2022: Continued involvement in various technology and philanthropic projects, maintaining a significant influence in the tech industry.
We assume and compute Sergey Brin’s net worth primarily based on his ownership stake in Alphabet, his largest holding (though he also owns other assets).
According to official financial data, our estimate was based on 300,758,936 shares of Class A common stock and 44,404,426 shares of Class B common stock outstanding on April 5, 2022.
The market cap has been computed based on March’s 2023 data of a 1.23 trillion dollars market cap.
Sergey Brin owns 18,566,632 Class B shares, representing 41.8% of Class B shares and 24.9% of total voting power.
Sergey Brin ownership percentage:
Sergey’s ownership % =
(Class B shares owned by Sergey Brin / Total outstanding shares) * 100 Sergey’s ownership % = (18,566,632 / 345,163,362) * 100 ≈ 5.38%
Ownership value = (Sergey’s ownership % / 100) * Market cap Ownership value = (5.38 / 100) * $1.23 trillion ≈ $66.154 trillion
So, Sergey Brin’s stake in the company is worth approximately $66.154 billion.
Sergey Brin’s Net Worth Calculation:
Alphabet Ownership: Sergey Brin’s primary source of wealth is his ownership stake in Alphabet Inc. (formerly Google), the parent company of Google. This ownership stake is derived from his holding of Class A and Class B common stocks.
Ownership Breakdown:
Class A Shares: 300,758,936 shares outstanding
Class B Shares: 44,404,426 shares outstanding
Total Outstanding Shares: 345,163,362 shares
Market Capitalization: The market capitalization of Alphabet was valued at $1.23 trillion as of March 2023.
Class B Ownership Percentage:
Sergey Brin owns 18,566,632 Class B shares.
Class B shares represent 41.8% of the total Class B shares outstanding.
Class B shares also represent 24.9% of the total voting power.
Calculation of Ownership Percentage:
Sergey’s ownership % = (Class B shares owned by Sergey Brin / Total outstanding shares) * 100
Conclusion: Based on these calculations, Sergey Brin’s ownership stake in Alphabet is estimated to be worth approximately $66.154 billion. This estimation is derived from his ownership of Class B shares and his proportional ownership of Alphabet’s overall market capitalization.
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Of Google’s (Alphabet) over $282 billion revenue for 2022, Google also generated over a billion dollars from a group of startup bets, which Google considers potential moonshots (companies that might open up new industries). Those Google’s bets also generated a loss for the company of over $6 billion in the same year. In short, Google is using the money generated by search and betting it on other innovative industries. Of Google’s (Alphabet) over $282 billion revenue for 2022, Google also generated over a billion dollars from a group of startup bets, which Google considers potential moonshots (companies that might open up new industries). Those Google’s bets also generated a loss for the company of over $6 billion in the same year. In short, Google is using the money generated by search and betting it on other innovative industries.
Google is an attention merchant that – in 2022 – generated $224 billion (almost 80% of its total revenues) from ads (Google Search, YouTube Ads, and Network sites), followed by Google Play, Pixel phones, YouTube Premium (a $29 billion segment), and Google Cloud ($26.3 billion).
The traffic acquisition cost represents the expenses incurred by an internet company, like Google, to gain qualified traffic – on its pages – for monetization. Over the years, Google has been able to reduce its traffic acquisition costs and, in any case, to keep it stable. In 2022 Google spent 21.75% of its total advertising revenues (over $48 billion) to guarantee its traffic on several desktop and mobile devices across the web.
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