The Google founders are reaping the fruits of the artificial intelligence craze, adding more than $18 billion to their combined fortune after the company unveiled its updated version of the search engine.
Larry Page’s net worth increased by $9.4 billion last week to $107 billion, while Sergey Brin’s wealth increased by $8.9 billion to $102 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which was seen by Al Arabiya.net. It is their biggest weekly gain since February 2021.
This comes after California-based Google revealed at its annual developer conference on Wednesday that it will start experimenting with a more conversational search engine and has made its AI chatbot more widely available.
The importance of the new disclosure comes in its confirmation of the company’s dominance in an increasingly competitive field. Shares of parent company Alphabet rose nearly 1% in New York on Friday, after rising 8.6% on Wednesday and Thursday.
Page and Brin, who have been helping drive artificial intelligence and are more involved in the company than they have been in years, are among the biggest gainers in 2023 after adding more than $22 billion each to their fortunes. They are the eighth and ninth richest people in the world, respectively.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was another beneficiary of the AI boom. He has invested in several startups in the field and has rejected public calls to slow the development of artificial intelligence, citing concerns about technological progress in China.
Most of his $23.6 billion fortune is still tied to Alphabet, where he is the third largest individual shareholder. His net worth increased $1.8 billion this week.
