Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, recently opened up about his thoughts on some of the biggest names in tech — including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and OpenAI’s leaders — in an interview with French media outlet Le Point.
On Elon Musk:
Durov said that even though people often compare him and Musk — especially because both have fathered many children — they are very different people. Musk has at least 11 children, while Durov has claimed to father over 100 children through sperm donation.
He added:
“Elon runs several companies at the same time, while I only run Telegram. He is very emotional, but I try to think carefully before making decisions.”
Despite these differences, Durov believes that Musk’s emotional side could also be one of his strengths.
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On Mark Zuckerberg:
Durov shared that Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is good at adapting to trends quickly. But he criticized Zuckerberg for not having strong core values that he sticks to, especially when the political or tech climate changes.
This isn’t the first time Durov has taken a jab at Meta — he previously called WhatsApp a “cheap, watered-down version of Telegram.”
On Sam Altman and Ilya Sutskever:
Durov praised OpenAI CEO Sam Altman for his excellent social skills, saying they’ve helped him form powerful partnerships for ChatGPT.
However, he raised doubts about Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s co-founder and former chief scientist, questioning whether his technical skills are still strong — especially since he and other top scientists have recently left OpenAI.
Finally, Durov said it will be interesting to see whether ChatGPT can stay ahead in the fast-growing AI chatbot industry.
