He was the eldest son of Nikita Demidov and increased the family fortune, raising it to one of Russia's most important industrial dynasties.

He zealously set to work and became the creator of the "empire" of the Demidovs, which by the middle of the 18th century produced 52% of all Russian metal.

In 1720, having bought from Nikolai Fedorovich Golovin an estate in the Barminskaya volost of the Nizhny Novgorod district, the Demidovs received a letter of nobility from Tsar Peter the Great rewarding his services by making him a hereditary nobleman, as he also did with Akinfiy's brothers.

He commissioned the Leaning Tower of Nevyansk, with its underground rooms and secret routes towards one of his factories.

Empress Elizaveta Petrovna granted a special patronage, that the Demidov brothers were exempted from compulsory military service and many taxes.