Skip to content
Trackfame
Yuri Milner

Yuri Milner

Investor behind DST Global and the Breakthrough Prizes

11 November 1961 Israel Verified by our editors
Age
64 yrs
Birthday in 5 days
Works listed
1
Book
Honours
0
Awards & distinctions
Profile views
4
0 followers

Yuri Milner is an Israeli entrepreneur and physicist who co-founded Mail.Ru Group and the investment firm DST Global, an early investor in Facebook, Twitter and Alibaba. He funds the Breakthrough Prizes, the largest science awards, and projects searching for alien life.

Biography

Physics

Milner studied theoretical physics at Moscow State University and worked at the Lebedev Physical Institute. He later studied business at Wharton.

Mail.Ru and DST

He co-founded Mail.Ru Group, a major Russian internet company, and in 2009 DST Global, which invested $200 million in Facebook and backed Twitter, Airbnb and Alibaba.

Breakthrough Prize

With Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin and others he founded the Breakthrough Prizes in 2012, awarding $3 million for fundamental physics, life sciences and mathematics.

Searching the stars

His Breakthrough Initiatives fund Breakthrough Listen, a search for alien signals, and Starshot, a plan for tiny laser-driven probes to Alpha Centauri. He renounced Russian citizenship in 2014.

Timeline

  1. 1961

    Born in Moscow, Soviet Union

  2. 1999

    Founds NetBridge

  3. 2009

    DST invests in Facebook

  4. 2012

    Breakthrough Prize

  5. 2015

    Breakthrough Listen

  6. 2016

    Breakthrough Starshot

  7. 2021

    Eureka Manifesto

Notable works

  • 2021

    Eureka Manifesto Book

Did you know?

  1. 1

    His parents named him after cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

  2. 2

    He owns one of the most expensive homes in Silicon Valley.

  3. 3

    Stephen Hawking helped launch Starshot.

Connections

Frequently asked

Who is Yuri Milner?

Yuri Milner is an Israeli entrepreneur and physicist who co-founded Mail.Ru Group and the investment firm DST Global, an early investor in Facebook, Twitter and Alibaba. He funds the Breakthrough Prizes, the largest science awards, and projects searching for alien life.

How old is Yuri Milner?

Yuri Milner is 64 years old, born on 11 November 1961 in Moscow, Soviet Union.

Where is Yuri Milner from?

Yuri Milner was born in Moscow, Soviet Union.

What is Yuri Milner known for?

Yuri Milner is best known for Founding DST Global; early investments in Facebook, Twitter and Alibaba; Breakthrough Prize; Breakthrough Listen and Starshot.

References

  1. Yuri Milner — Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  2. Yuri Milner — Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  3. Yuri Milner — Hindi Wikipedia. Wikipedia (Hindi). Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  4. Yuri Milner (Q138076) — structured data. Wikidata. Retrieved 4 November 2026.

Includes material from the Wikipedia article “Yuri Milner”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. That text is available under the same licence. Learn more

External links

About this profile

Cite this page

“Yuri Milner.” TrackFame, last updated 5 November 2026. https://trackfame.com/person/yuri-milner

Discussion 0

Sign in or create an account to join the discussion.

No comments yet — be the first.

More in Science

See all