Sergey today: “I think a lot of people think I’m naive, and that may well be true, but I wouldn’t have started a search engine in 1998 if I wasn’t naive.” “I’m an optimist. I want to find a way to work within the Chinese system and provide more and better information. ...perhaps it won’t succeed immediately tomorrow but maybe in a year or two” (<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/4352214379">more on China</a>)

Left to right, Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google

Sergey Brin

President Donald J. Trump presents the National Medal of Science to tech company leaders at a “New Golden Age” summit with tech and science leaders at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., Thursday, October 8, 2026. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)

Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin shows U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry the sensor displays inside one of Google's self-driving cars at the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship's Innovation Marketplace on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, on June 23, 2016. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

A surprise guest at TED 2010, Sergey spoke openly about Google’s new posture with China.

Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt (Google's Geo Developer Day 2006)

Google co-founder Sergey Brin told the Web 2.0 audience that Google is not in the content business and will continue to concentrate on search.

Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, made a surprise appearance at Web 2.0.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin, founders of Google, pictured in September 2003.