Yuri Milner

Yuri Milner
Yuri Milner
Born	November 11, 1961 (age 65); Moscow, Soviet Union
Occupation(s)	Entrepreneur, investor, physicist, scientist
Known for	Co-founder and former chairman of Mail.Ru Group (VK), founder of DST Global

Yuri Borisovich (Bentsionovich) Milner (, ; born 11 November 1961) is an entrepreneur, investor, physicist, and scientist originally from the Soviet Union who later acquired Israeli citizenship. He co-established and previously served as chairman of the internet enterprise Mail.Ru Group (subsequently renamed VK) and is the founder of the investment firm DST Global. Through DST Global, Milner has backed leading technology companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Airbnb, Spotify, Byju's, Flipkart, Wish, JD, Alibaba, and Nu Bank.

By 2012, Milner’s portfolio personally included investments in firms like 23andMe, Habito, and Planet Labs. In 2017, he held a minority stake in the real estate investment startup Cadre.

Early life

Yuri Milner was born on 11 November 1961 in Moscow into a Jewish family as the second child of Soviet intellectuals. His father, Bentsion Zakharovitch Milner, occupied the role of Chief Deputy Director at the Institute of Economics within the Russian Academy of Sciences and was engaged in administrative leadership. His mother, Betty Iosifovna Milner, was employed at Moscow's state virological laboratory. Milner completed his studies at the Faculty of Physics at Lomonosov University in 1985 and subsequently worked at the Lebedev Physical Institute focusing on theoretical physics under the mentorship of future Nobel Prize winner Vitaly Ginzburg.

He obtained Israeli citizenship in 1999, relocated to Israel with his family in 2005, and moved to California in 2014. Since the 2014 Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, he has not returned to Russia. In August 2022, he formally renounced his Russian citizenship reportedly due to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Education

Milner pursued studies in theoretical physics at Moscow State University, graduating in 1985. He then contributed to research at the Lebedev Physical Institute under the umbrella of the Russian Academy of Sciences. During his doctoral studies in particle physics, he developed a friendship with Soviet nuclear physicist and human rights advocate Andrei Sakharov, whose progressive mindset influenced Milner’s approach to investing.

In 1990, Milner became the first individual from the Soviet Union who was not an émigré to travel to the United States for an MBA program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He pursued this path motivated by dissatisfaction with his career in physics. Although he did not complete his MBA, Milner was invited as a commencement speaker for Wharton’s class of 2017. In 2020, Milner and his wife Julia established a $10 million Friends of Israel MBA Fellowship at Wharton, which has supported more than 60 Israeli students over a decade.

Business career

Milner’s initial business endeavors involved selling gray market DOS computers within the Soviet Union. Following the dissolution of the USSR, he paused his activities to pursue an MBA at Wharton.

During the early 1990s, Milner worked with the World Bank in Washington, D.C., focusing on Russian banking systems and private sector growth. In 1995, he took on the role of CEO at Alliance-Menatep, a brokerage firm owned by oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky. By late 1996, he advanced to vice president and Head of Investment Management at Menatep Bank and was promoted to deputy chairperson and leader of its investment division in 1997 before departing in early 1998. Industry experts acknowledged his proficiency in international finance and knowledge of Russian markets.

Investments in the Russian Internet Sector

In 1999, motivated by a Morgan Stanley analyst's report highlighting the potential of online businesses, Milner partnered with Gregory Finger and New Century Holding (NCH) to establish NetBridge, securing $4.5 million in initial capital. NetBridge functioned as an Internet incubator, introducing American-style online enterprises to the Russian market. Its projects included the portal List.ru, the auction platform Molotok.ru (inspired by eBay), free web hosting service Boom.ru (modeled after GeoCities), and the e-commerce site 24×7 (based on Amazon.com).

By 2001, NetBridge merged with Port.ru, the owner of Mail.ru, with Milner appointed as CEO of the newly formed Mail.Ru entity. When NCH redirected its focus away from Russian internet ventures in 2005, Milner launched the investment fund Digital Sky Technologies (DST), assuming the chairmanship in 2006. In 2008, investor Alisher Usmanov became a shareholder in DST. The company rebranded as Mail.ru Group in September 2010.

Mail.ru Group went public on the London Stock Exchange in 2010, reaching a market capitalization of $5.6 billion. In March 2012, Milner resigned as chairperson and left the board; Dmitry Grishin took over both CEO and chair roles without other executive changes.

Post-IPO, DST continued as the exclusive entity managing international investments separately from Mail.ru Group.

Between 2009 and 2012, Milner was a member of the Commission on Modernization under Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Technology Sector Investments

In January 2009, while visiting Palo Alto, Milner met Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, which led to DST acquiring a 1.96% stake in Facebook for $200 million by May that year.

On 16 September 2010, Digital Sky Technologies rebranded itself as "Mail.ru Group," overseeing assets such as Mail.ru, Odnoklassniki.ru, ICQ, a minority share in VKontakte, and online payment platforms. Milner transferred his commercial interests in Facebook, Zynga, and Groupon to DST Global, where he became CEO and also chaired Mail.ru Group’s board. Mail.ru Group’s public listing on the London Stock Exchange occurred in November 2010. Milner stepped down from his roles at Mail.ru’s board and chairmanship in March 2012.

DST Global established itself as a prominent global technology investor with holdings in major firms including Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Airbnb, Spotify, and Alibaba.

In November 2017, The New York Times reported that Milner had Kremlin support for investments exceeding an 8% stake in Facebook and a 5% stake in Twitter; however, these shares had been sold two years prior. Milner publicly refuted any allegations of cooperating with Russia to affect US democracy through an open letter published in ReCode.

From 2009 through 2021, DST Global invested upwards of $12.5 billion across more than eighty companies. Prior to 2011, less than 3% of its funds originated from Russian institutions and were fully returned by 2014. Since then, approximately 97% of capital has been raised internationally from private investors and institutions. DST Global has not had Russian institutional investors, offices, or investments since 2014.

G8 Summit in Deauville, France

In May 2011, Yuri Milner was among a distinguished group of technology leaders, including Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Eric Schmidt (Google), and Hiroshi Mikitani (Rakuten), who convened at the G8 Summit held in Deauville, France. The gathering focused on exploring how the internet influences the worldwide economic landscape.

Altos Labs

In September 2021, an investment entity affiliated with Milner's Breakthrough Foundation collaborated with Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos to fund Altos Labs, a biotech firm dedicated to creating longevity treatments through cellular reprogramming. The company attracted prominent researchers such as Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, Steve Horvath, and Nobel Prize winner Shinya Yamanaka. Initially, Milner supported geroscience research via grant funding but later transitioned to investing in a well-resourced biotech enterprise to accelerate innovation, a strategic shift inspired by former National Cancer Institute director Richard Klausner.

Selected investments

On 29 January 2011, Milner pledged $150,000 investments to each startup chosen by the incubator Y Combinator.
In February 2014, he spearheaded funding for Otoy, a company specializing in cloud-based graphics.
In April 2016, Milner invested in Habito, an online mortgage brokerage platform, alongside other fintech backers.

Forbes list controversy

On 29 January 2018, Yuri Milner appeared on the United States Treasury Department’s "Report to Congress Pursuant to Section 241 of the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) of 2017," which named 96 individuals of Russian descent with an estimated net worth exceeding $1 billion.

While media outlets suggested those listed "might face sanctions," the CAATSA Report explicitly stated that its publication "should not be interpreted as imposing sanctions" nor does it imply involvement in illicit activities. It was later revealed that the Treasury Department had duplicated Forbes' 2017 The World's Billionaires list indiscriminately, including all individuals of Russian heritage with wealth over $1 billion.

When confronted with a lawsuit alleging the list was "arbitrary, capricious, and unlawful," the Treasury Department acknowledged it was "not disputing" claims that it had merely republished Forbes’ billionaire rankings. In April 2020, Forbes updated Yuri Milner’s classification from Russian to Israeli billionaire status, reflecting his Israeli citizenship and business affiliations.

Breakthrough Prize

In July 2012, Yuri and Julia Milner launched the Breakthrough Prize, later joined by Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan, Anne Wojcicki, and Mark Zuckerberg. This award honors exceptional accomplishments in Fundamental Physics, Life Sciences, and Mathematics by granting $3 million to each recipient, making it the most lucrative scientific prize worldwide. Additional recognitions include New Horizons awards for early-career scientists and the Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers Prizes for recent female PhD graduates in mathematics.

Laureates are selected by committees composed of previous winners from a pool of publicly nominated candidates. As of September 2023, over $308 million has been distributed to 271 individual scientists and four research groups. The annual awards ceremony features celebrity hosts and live entertainment and is most recently held at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles with simultaneous online streaming.

Breakthrough Initiatives

Initiated by Milner in July 2015, the Breakthrough Initiatives represent a scientific effort to investigate extraterrestrial life. Unveiled at the Royal Society alongside Stephen Hawking and other prominent scientists, this program encompasses three key projects:

Breakthrough Listen: A decade-long, $100 million endeavor utilizing major radio telescopes such as Green Bank, Parkes, Lick, FAST, and MeerKAT. It targets a survey of the closest million stars, 100 galaxies, and the Milky Way’s core for potential radio and laser communications from intelligent life.
Breakthrough Message: An annual award of $1 million for digital messages that symbolize Earth and humanity, designed to be interpretable by alien civilizations; however, transmission is pending worldwide ethical agreement.
Breakthrough Starshot: Introduced in April 2016 with a $100 million budget aimed at creating light sail spacecraft capable of traveling to Alpha Centauri at one-fifth the speed of light within roughly two decades, facilitating interstellar exploration.

The Breakthrough Discuss conference held in April 2017 assessed preliminary findings from Breakthrough Listen’s examination of 692 stars.

Breakthrough Junior Challenge

The Breakthrough Prize launched the Breakthrough Junior Challenge in September 2015, a science competition for young individuals aged thirteen to eighteen, organized in partnership with Khan Academy.

COVID-19 response

On March 25, 2020, the Milner Foundation, founded by Yuri and Julia Milner, contributed $3 million to three Israeli organizations: Magen David Adom, supporting innovative initiatives to minimize clinic visits; Tel Aviv University Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, funding research on COVID-19 treatments; and Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Ichilov Hospital, providing direct support to its intensive care unit for COVID-19 patients.

A few weeks later, the foundation donated three million face masks to Israel. Yuri Milner explained in an open letter that a significant portion of these masks would be distributed to essential service groups whose personnel continued operating during lockdowns. The masks arrived at Ben Gurion Airport on April 16, 2020 aboard a dedicated El Al "Jerusalem of Gold" Dreamliner and were allocated by Magen David Adom to emergency responders, hospitals, government agencies, and critical national institutions.

Response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine

Milner’s enterprises publicly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and he personally voiced opposition to the conflict on his Twitter platform. Since the 2014 annexation of Crimea, he has refrained from visiting Russia and formally renounced his Russian citizenship after the 2022 invasion. Milner has contributed tens of millions of dollars toward aiding Ukrainian refugees.

He highlighted that his investment firm DST ceased accepting Russian capital following a $900 million fund raised in 2011, underlining their longstanding effort to separate from Russian financial sources well before many Western banks halted operations there.

Tech for Refugees

In April 2022, Yuri and Julia Milner’s foundation committed $100 million to Tech for Refugees, a charitable initiative created alongside Airbnb.org, Flexport.org, and Spotify. This program uses technological solutions to help Ukrainian refugees secure housing and essential resources, with intentions to broaden assistance to other refugee populations worldwide.

Additional Contributions

In March 2022, the non-profit organization DST Global, founded by Yuri and Julia Milner, along with the Breakthrough Prize Foundation, provided financial support aimed at humanitarian aid for refugees affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Breakthrough Prize Foundation allocated $3 million to various international aid groups and committed an extra $3 million specifically to assist Ukrainian scientists who had been displaced. The distribution of these pledged funds was organized as follows:

$1 million directed to the National Academy of Sciences program designed to help scientists retain employment and maintain global networks after leaving Ukraine.
$1.5 million granted to ALLEA, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities, for allocation through European academic bodies.
$500,000 given to a coalition of Israeli universities led by Tel Aviv University.
A challenge grant totaling $2.1 million awarded to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences to support scientific research projects led by Ukrainian researchers.
$800,000 provided to the Australian Academy of Science to facilitate research partnerships and access to infrastructure for displaced Ukrainian scientists.

Additionally, DST Global pledged $3.5 million to Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher’s Stand With Ukraine campaign, which focuses on refugee relief initiatives. The Milners’ foundation further donated $2 million more to this cause, along with $3 million granted to the Conference of European Rabbis to assist Jewish refugees from Ukraine.

The Giving Pledge

On 10 December 2013, Yuri and Julia Milner became signatories of the Giving Pledge, a philanthropic commitment initiated by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates where participants vow to donate the majority of their wealth to charitable efforts. The Milners declared their intention to primarily back scientific endeavors, with Yuri Milner highlighting that scientific talent is significantly underfunded compared to other industries.

Private Life

In a 2010 conversation with Vedomosti, Milner mentioned that he had limited time for leisure activities, including reading materials unrelated to his work.

Milner is married to Julia Milner (née Bochkova), a former high-fashion model turned contemporary artist who has contributed her photographic work Click I Hope to events such as the 52nd Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art.

Properties

In 2011, Milner acquired a $100 million estate located in Los Altos Hills, California, encompassing seven hectares with a main residence measuring 25,500 square feet and an additional guest house of 5,500 square feet. Although this purchase was reported as the highest-priced single-family home sale in the United States at that time, its official assessed value stands near $50 million. Milner participates in synagogue attendance but observes religious practices only minimally.

Milner envisions the Internet developing into a "global brain"—an intelligent system uniting humans and machines as a planetary nervous network. He anticipates that advancements in the Internet of things and social media will enhance collective human intelligence. These concepts are further detailed in his publication Eureka Manifesto: the Mission for Our Civilization.

Milner’s name appears among those listed in the Paradise Papers.

On 24 March 2020, Milner released an informational statement addressing his and DST Global’s connections with Russia: he holds Israeli citizenship, has never met Vladimir Putin, earned 97% of his wealth outside Russia, owns no Russian assets, and has not visited Russia since 2014. Furthermore, DST Global has had no investments or financial ties with Russian entities since 2011. In 2018, The Wall Street Journal issued corrections regarding previous inaccurate descriptions of DST Global as a Russian company in several articles.

Renunciation of Russian Citizenship

In August 2022, Yuri Milner formally completed the procedure to relinquish his Russian nationality.

Honors and Distinctions

Yuri Milner has been the recipient of a wide array of honors that highlight his prominence in the realms of business and technology. In September 2017, Forbes included him in its list of the 100 most outstanding living business visionaries. He appeared in Fortune’s "World’s Greatest Leaders" compilations in both March 2017 and April 2018, while Time magazine recognized him within its 2016 "Titans" category of the Time 100 Most Influential People. In May 2013, Foreign Policy featured him on its first-ever "Power List," which ranks the top 500 global influencers. Bloomberg Markets acknowledged him among their "50 Most Influential" in 2012, and Fortune positioned him as the 46th leading business figure worldwide in 2010. That same year, the Russian publication Vedomosti awarded him the title "Businessman of the Year."

Significant accolades consist of:

Fortune’s "The World’s 50 Greatest Leaders" – 2017 to 2018
Forbes’ "100 Greatest Living Business Minds" – 2017
Forbes’ "The Midas List" – multiple editions from 2011 through 2017
Wired’s "The Wired 100" – 2015 and 2016
Time’s "Time 100 Most Influential People" – 2016
Vanity Fair’s "New Establishment List" – years including 2011, 2014, and 2015
Bloomberg Markets’ "Most Influential 50" – 2012
Business Insider’s "The Silicon Valley 100" – 2012
The Hollywood Reporter’s "Top 50 Digital Power Players" – 2012
Fortune’s "Businessperson of the Year – Top 50" – 2011
GQ Russia’s "Man of the Year" – 2011
Kommersant’s "Kommersant of the Year" – 2011
Fast Company’s "The 100 Most Creative People" – 2011

Milner’s repeated inclusion on these distinguished lists reflects his pivotal role in shaping global technology investment landscapes and fostering entrepreneurship.

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