Portrait of Gabe Newell

Rank #295

Gabe Newell

Net worth $11.0B

Video games · United States

Born
Nov 03, 1962
Age
63
Source
Video games
Residence
Seattle, Washington
Citizenship
United States
Marital status
Divorced
Children
2
Education
Drop Out, Harvard University

Net worth over time

Biography

  • Gabe Newell has led Valve Corp., which develops video games, since he cofounded it in 1998 with former Microsoft colleague Mike Harrington.
  • The company found initial success with games like Half-Life and Portal.
  • Valve Corp. plays a big role in PC game sales through Steam, a digital platform for buying, selling and playing video games.
  • Steam reached 1 billion accounts in 2019 and continues to set active user records.
  • Forbes estimates that Newell owns at least one half of the company, which operates out of Bellevue, Washington.
  • Newell was hired by Steve Ballmer as Microsoft's 271st employee after dropping out of Harvard.
  • Valve released a hand-held gaming console in 2022 called the Steamdeck, which lets gamers play a variety of Steam's offerings on the portable device.