Sergey Brin: Net Worth, Religion, and Political Views

Sergey Brin escaped the Soviet Union as a child, built the world’s most-used search engine in a Stanford dorm, and now holds a fortune that fluctuates in the hundreds of billions. His Jewish identity, political evolution, and friendship with Larry Page remain subjects of intense public curiosity.

Net worth: $100 billion (approx.) ·
Age: 51 (born 1973) ·
Co-founded Google: 1998 ·
Education: Stanford University

The following table summarizes key personal and professional facts.

Are Google founders Jews?

Both Sergey Brin and Larry Page were raised in Jewish families. Brin was born in Moscow to a Jewish family and has been publicly identified as Jewish in coverage of internal Google discussions on Gaza and antisemitism (The New York Times). Multiple biographical sources describe him as raised Jewish but not religious or not observant (InfluenceWatch).

What is the religion of the owners of Google?

• Sergey Brin is Jewish by heritage (The New York Times)
• Larry Page is also Jewish; his father was a professor of computer science and his mother taught Judaism (Wikipedia)
• Both founders were raised in Jewish families

The implication: Brin’s Jewish identity is a matter of heritage, not active practice, but it has shaped his public comments on antisemitism and the Middle East.

Does Sergey Brin support Trump?

Brin’s political record is mixed but increasingly leans toward Republican causes. In leaked 2016 remarks, he reportedly called Donald Trump’s election “deeply offensive” (The New York Times). He joined a protest against Trump’s travel ban in 2017 and donated to Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign and to same-sex marriage efforts in California in 2008 (The New York Times).

However, in 2025 he donated more than $100,000 to the Republican National Committee, and a later report put the total at nearly half a million dollars (InfluenceWatch; The New York Times).

The catch: Brin’s shift from Democratic donor to major Republican contributor suggests a pragmatic realignment, not a personal endorsement of Trump.

Who Owns Google Company?

Alphabet Inc. owns Google, and Brin and Page hold majority voting shares through Class B shares that give them ten times the voting power of ordinary shares (Wikipedia).

Who won 51% of Google?

• No single individual owns 51% of Google; Brin and Page together control a majority of voting power
• Class B shares are not publicly traded, ensuring their control

Does Alphabet own 100% of Google?

• Alphabet Inc. was created in 2015 as the parent company; Google is a wholly owned subsidiary (Wikipedia)
• Alphabet also owns ventures like Waymo, Verily, and DeepMind

The pattern: Brin and Page have retained control even as they stepped back from day-to-day management, a structure that insulates them from shareholder pressure.

Who is more rich, Larry Page or Sergey Brin?

Both men have fortunes that hover around $100 billion, but Page typically edges ahead by a few billion. A 2025 Bloomberg-linked estimate put Brin at $149 billion, while a 2026 NYT report described his fortune as $273 billion (New York Post; The New York Times).

Four metrics, one pattern: the gap is small and driven by stock price swings.

The trade-off: Page’s slightly higher wealth reflects his longer tenure as CEO, but both remain among the ten richest people in the world.

Are Larry Page and Sergey Brin friends?

Yes – they met at Stanford University in 1995 and co-founded Google in 1998. Their partnership has lasted more than 25 years, and they remain close personal friends and business partners (Wikipedia).

• They jointly developed the PageRank algorithm
• They serve together on the Alphabet board
• They have been described as “intellectual brothers”

What this means: their friendship is a rare example of a co-founder bond that survived massive wealth and corporate restructuring.

Timeline

• 1973 – Born in Moscow, Russia (Wikipedia)
• 1979 – Family emigrates to the United States (Wikipedia)
• 1998 – Co-founded Google with Larry Page (Wikipedia)
• 2004 – Google goes public (Wikipedia)
• 2015 – Alphabet Inc. created as parent company (Wikipedia)
• 2019 – Steps down as president of Alphabet (Wikipedia)

Clarity: Confirmed vs. Unclear

Confirmed facts

• Sergey Brin is Jewish by heritage (The New York Times)
• He co-founded Google in 1998 (Wikipedia)
• His net worth exceeds $100 billion (The New York Times)
• He resigned from Alphabet presidency in 2019 (Wikipedia)
• He donated nearly $500,000 to the RNC in 2025 (The New York Times)

What’s unclear

• His current political affiliations (he has donated to both parties)
• Whether he will return to active management at Alphabet
• Details of his divorce from Nicole Shanahan
• Exact net worth (estimates range from $135B to $273B)
• His precise stance on Israel beyond the UN comment

“The election of Donald Trump is deeply offensive to me.”

– Sergey Brin, 2016 leaked remarks, reported by The New York Times

“The United Nations is transparently antisemitic.”

– Sergey Brin, internal Google chat, 2025, reported by New York Post

For investors and tech observers, the implication is clear: Brin is no longer a passive observer of politics. His increased spending on both sides of the aisle signals a willingness to influence policy directly, a shift that could reshape perceptions of tech billionaires’ role in democracy.

Frequently asked questions