Judge Slaps Down 100-Kid Tycoon

Pregnant woman holding belly during medical visit — Photo: fizkes / Shutterstock

A California surrogate mother says she found out who her baby’s real father was by watching the news.

Quick Take

A California family court reportedly found Chinese gaming billionaire Xu Bo was seeking parental rights to at least four unborn children while already fathering at least eight more through surrogates.
Xu allegedly told a judge by video, through an interpreter, that he wants about 20 U.S.-born children, mostly boys, to one day run his business.
His company, Duoyi Network, admits Xu has “a little over 100” children total but says only 12 were born through U.S. surrogacy.
A judge denied Xu’s parentage request, a rare rebuke inside America’s largely unregulated surrogacy industry.

What The Court Uncovered In California

The Wall Street Journal first reported that a California family court discovered Xu Bo was pursuing parental rights for at least four unborn children. Court research also found he had already fathered, or was in the process of fathering, at least eight more through surrogates. A judge named Amy Pellman ultimately denied his parentage request, an unusual move in an industry with few rules and even fewer public checks.

The Atlantic later reported that a Los Angeles court found the same pattern. Xu was seeking rights to four babies while at least eight more were already being carried by surrogates. Reports say the children born so far are being raised by nannies in a house in Irvine, California, far from Xu’s home in China.

A Billionaire’s Own Words On Wanting 20 Sons

Newsmax reported that Xu appeared at the hearing by video from China, speaking through an interpreter. He reportedly told the judge he hoped to have about 20 U.S.-born children, mostly boys, so they could one day take over his business. Other outlets quoted him saying he views boys as better suited to run the company than girls, a claim that has drawn sharp criticism from surrogacy advocates and family law experts alike.

China bans commercial surrogacy outright, which is why wealthy citizens increasingly turn to American clinics and agencies instead. The United States has some of the loosest surrogacy laws in the world, with rules varying wildly from state to state. That patchwork made California, with its surrogate-friendly courts, an obvious destination for a man building a family empire on a scale almost no one saw coming.

The Company’s Pushback: “Only 12” Born Here

Duoyi Network, the gaming company Xu leads, pushed back hard against the Journal’s reporting. The company said Xu has over 100 children total but that only 12 were born through surrogacy inside the United States, accusing the paper of twisting his words and spreading false information. A separate statement attributed to Xu said he believes “more children bring more blessings” and framed his choices as a benefit to China’s long-term future.

Fortune and other outlets noted the figure has shifted depending on who’s asked and when. The Times reported Xu himself put his total count at 100 children, with only 12 conceived through surrogacy, a number that roughly lines up with his company’s later clarification. The exact tally beyond that remains murky, filtered through company statements rather than independent birth or court records.

Why This Case Exposes A Legal Blind Spot

Legal scholars have long warned that family law wasn’t built for arrangements like this. Commercial surrogacy crosses borders, jurisdictions, and legal systems that don’t always agree on what counts as parentage, leaving courts to sort out messes years after children are already born and living with nannies instead of parents. California’s pre-birth parentage orders were designed for ordinary families, not billionaires running what looks like an assembly line.

The bigger question isn’t just how many children Xu Bo has fathered. It’s whether American surrogacy law has any real guardrails left when a foreign billionaire can quietly build a family compire of dozens of children born to strangers who signed contracts without knowing the full picture. That gap in oversight, more than any single number, is the part conservatives should be watching closely.