Gabe Newell
Seattle, Washington
Drop Out, Harvard University
United States
Valve Corporation
8
videogames, Self Made
$3,900,000,000
529
#529 Billionaires 2019
#190 Forbes 400 2018
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 its Steam digital store; some liken it to the iTunes of video games.Steam sells game licenses to 125 million users of its own and other developers' titles and collects a percentage of the sales.Forbes estimates that Newell owns just over half 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, together with Chinese consumer electronics company HTC, developed the popular Virtual Reality headset Vive in 2016.
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