Larry Page and Sergey Brin may have only taken salaries of $1 during their time at Google, but they’re still two of the richest people in the world.
Both Page and Brin are among the largest shareholders of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, despite stepping down from their posts in December 2019. Their combined fortune is valued at $257 billion, according to the Forbes Billionaires List.
Here’s a look at how Page and Brin made and spend their fortunes.
Brin and Page met in 1995, when Brin gave Page a tour around Stanford University
Brin was a second-year graduate student in Stanford’s computer science department and Page was considering attending. They reportedly both found each other “obnoxious” at first, but they became classmates.
Despite their initial spats, Brin and Page started working together on an interesting idea Page had about cataloging every link on the internet. BackRub, as it was called at its inception in 1996, took off.
After dropping out of Stanford, the two founded Google in 1998
Google was first launched in a garage in Menlo Park, California.
Page had two stints as Google’s CEO while Brin was president. In 2019, the billionaire duo announced that they would be stepping back from their roles at Alphabet.
In 2005, Larry Page bought a $7.2 million home in Old Palo Alto
The home, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was built from 1931 to 1941 for Bay Area artist Pedro de Lemos.
At 9,000 square feet, the two-story home was built in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. It’s constructed of stucco and tile around a courtyard. Parts of the home were salvaged from a chapel that was partially destroyed during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
In 2009, after Page bought the historic home, he started buying adjacent properties to construct an environmentally friendly estate. The 6,000-square-foot home has a roof garden with solar panels and four bedrooms.
Brin has even swankier digs in New York City’s tony West Village
Brin bought a West Village penthouse for $8.5 million in 2008. Celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker and Tiger Woods have also scooped up property in that neighborhood.
The two-story, three-bedroom, 3,457-square-foot penthouse also has a 1,200-square-foot wraparound terrace with views of lower Manhattan. The kitchen is outfitted with custom Moroccan tiles and top-of-the-line appliances.
Brin has also purchased an estate in an undisclosed location in Los Altos Hills, California.
The Google cofounders are both regulars at Burning Man
Page and Brin are known for attending Burning Man. To disguise their identities, they’ve worn full spandex body suits.
They’ve also been known to spend time vacationing in Fiji.
Page and Brin also regularly traveled to Sicily to host the super-exclusive Google Camp.
Google Camp takes place at the Verdura Resort, which has a 200-foot infinity pool, a mile of private coastline on the Mediterranean, and two 18-hole golf courses.
Brin and Page have each bought superyachts
While they were in Fiji in 2012, Brin and Page rode in Brin’s superyacht, the Dragonfly, a vessel measuring 240 feet Brin reportedly bought for $80 million in 2011. Previously, it was available to charter for $773,000 per week.
Constructed in 2009, the Dragonfly was the world’s fastest superyacht. It has an open-air cinema, a Jacuzzi, and a dance floor. It can hold 18 guests and 16 crew members.
Brin has several luxury yachts and water-sports vehicles that those in his inner circle call the “Fly Fleet.”
Besides the Dragonfly, the fleet also includes a 130-foot yacht called the Butterfly, as well as a smaller pleasure craft called the Firefly.
Meanwhile, Page’s superyacht, called “Senses,” measures 60 meters and accommodates up to 12, has six decks, open and shaded sun decks, a gym, and Jacuzzi — as well as five Waverunners. He reportedly paid $45 million for it in 2011.
Brin and Page also travel in style by air
They bought a Boeing 767-200 in 2005 — an unusual choice as executives usually prefer Gulfstream jets.
The former passenger jet carries 50 passengers. There are several seating areas, two staterooms with connecting bathrooms and showers, and a dining area.
These guys don’t just have a private plane — they also have an $82 million private airport. Google began building its own private airport near the San Jose airport in 2014.
Page doesn’t just dabble in typical aircraft. While we don’t know how often Page himself is taking the products for a spin, he has funded three flying car companies — a fitting hobby for the man who once oversaw Waymo, Google’s self-driving car service.
Page and Brin both have been taken with Teslas
The duo led an investment round of $40 million in Elon Musk’s EV company back in 2006.
Brin was the fourth person to receive a Tesla Model X Crossover SUV in 2015 when it was first released — he snagged a white one.
Page took his interest in Tesla even further in 2014 when he said he would donate his billions to Elon Musk instead of a charity, his family, or his own business.
Page and Brin have both frequently given to philanthropic causes
From 2000 to 2017, Brin donated donated $37.5 billion and Page $38.5 billion. In 2018, however, both Brin and Page gave 0% of their fortunes to charity.
Brin has reportedly donated more than $1.1 billion to Parkinson’s disease research, making him the largest individual donor to the cause. (Brin has previously said his mother has Parkinson’s, and he has a rare genetic mutation that puts him at a higher risk for developing it than the general population.)
In both 2020 and 2021, The Sergey Brin Family Foundation gave roughly $250 million to groups with causes like tackling climate change and homelessness, and even a nonprofit supporting colonization of the moon.
Page’s Carl Victor Page Memorial Foundation disbursed nearly $200 million to charities in 2021, of which 99% went to the National Philanthropic Trust, a donor-advised fund. DAFs, as they’re known, let donors make tax-deductible contributions that are given to charities over time, though money can stay in DAFs indefinitely, and when it is disbursed, you can’t publicly track where it goes.
Brin also spends his money on a variety of thrill-seeking hobbies
Brin has been reportedly building an entire flying airship at a NASA research center near Mountain View, California, not far from Google’s headquarters.
The project has been estimated to cost between $100 and $150 million — and is funded entirely by Brin. Brin’s airship received FAA clearance last year.
Sources say Brin pictures the airship delivering goods and food on humanitarian missions, as well as being an “air yacht” for the billionaire’s friends and family.
Brin is a lover of roller hockey, ultimate Frisbee, gymnastics, and high-flying trapeze. He has been spotted at advanced trapeze classes at the Circus Warehouse in New York City, which costs $1,760 per month.
Page has been known to kite board — sometimes with Richard Branson.
Brin reportedly paid the salaries of 47 people who work for him and his family, including ex-bankers who manage his philanthropy and finances, a fitness coordinator, a yacht captain, an archivist, and a photographer.
For those two centibillionaires, their combined net worth is now around a quarter of a trillion — yes, with a “t” — dollars.
That’s a far cry from Google’s humble beginnings in a garage in Menlo Park.
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