Follow @jordankahn
Co-founder and managing director of the Valve Corporation, Gabe Newell is a billionaire. He recently made his debut on the Forbes list of billionaires, making him one of the richest people on the planet.
Newell has an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion dollars and ranks at 854th out of 1226 of the world’s richest people. 2011 was an incredible year for Valve, as we reported previously. Portal 2 was a massive hit for the company, not to mention the now more than 40 million registered users on Steam.
With Valve’s digital distribution system, Steam, doubling in sales for the last 7 years, it appears as though Mr. Newell’s worth will continue to rise in the coming years. Newell, 49, co-founded Valve back in 1996 and owns more than 50% of the company to date. His initial funding for the company came from cashing in stock options he received as a long-time software developer for Microsoft in years previous.
Unlike any other gaming company on the planet, Valve has managed to prop itself up creating a now industry leading distribution platform. The company is privately owned and is very secretive about its revenue. Forbes consulted with a number of different credible sources including professional industry analysts and investment bankers to estimate Valve’s worth and in turn Gabe Newell’s. It turns out the most conservative estimates at the company’s value comes out at about $3 billion dollars, at 50 percent ownership, Newell’s worth a cool $1.5 billion.
Valve definitely isn’t slowing down with over 70% of the digital PC game market and rumors of a “Steam Box” console.
RELATED LINKS:
Is Steam Thinking About Developing a New Console? New Photos, Patents Say ‘Yes’
Craig Hunter – who has written 1177 posts on The Jace Hall Show.
Craig Hunter is a main contributor for the Jace Hall Show and has been an avid gamer for over 15 years. He also freelances for a number of websites and magazines covering mobile products and emerging technologies.

Logan Huffman wants to know who is posting comments about him online and asks Jace for help. Meanwhile Joe Flanigan is caught again flirting in the V costume. Jace heads to the set of Law and Order: SVU to catch up with Ice – T and Coco and the Starcraft II team gets “rushed” by World of Warcraft Lead Designer, Jeff Kaplan.
Jace has decided to take advantage of his co-hosting duties at the Sony Online Entertainment Fan Faire celebration, by showing his new music video to the thousands of EverQuest players in attendance, much to the dismay of the crowd. That didn’t stop one enthusiastic guest from doing something radical.