Google’s founders are reaping the benefits of the artificial intelligence mania, adding more than $17 billion to their combined wealth as the company unveils an updated search engine.
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Larry Page’s net worth increased by $8.7 billion this week to $106.2 billion, while Sergey Brin’s wealth rose $8.3 billion to $101.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. This increase put them on track for their largest weekly gain since February 2021.
The company, located in the Mountain View region, where it is based in California, made it clear during its annual programmers’ conference last Wednesday that “Google” will begin to experiment with a search engine that relies more on conversation, and provide a chatbot based on artificial intelligence on a larger scale. This helps the company to assert and establish its dominance in an increasingly competitive field. Shares of its parent company, Alphabet, were little changed at 10:57 a.m. Friday New York time, after rising 8.6% over the two days through Thursday.
Paige and Brin, who help with AI efforts and are more involved with the company than they have been in years, are among the biggest gainers of 2023 after adding more than $22 billion to their fortunes. The two men are the eighth and ninth richest people in the world, respectively.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is also benefiting from the AI boom. He has invested in several start-ups in this field and has rejected public calls to slow the pace of research, citing concerns about China’s progress in the technology sector.
The majority of his $23.5 billion fortune remains associated with Alphabet, where he is the third largest individual stockholder. His net worth increased by $1.7 billion this week.
