Gabe Newell has splashed out $70.8 million on a Florida super mansion that comes with its own tunnel to the sea.
The billionaire Valve boss acquired the roughly 20,000-square-foot home in Manalapan, Florida, the Wall Street Journal reported. Newell bought it from Cindy and Ron McMackin, founders of the mechanical subcontracting company Pan-Pacific Mechanical, who paid $39 million for it in 2020.
According to the WSJ, Newell's new home includes a tunnel connecting the waterfront estate with the ocean via a beach. We can see what this looks like via a 2020 promotional video published to YouTube by Premier Estate Properties, which handled the sale. A perfect fit for the odd headcrab? I'd bring a crowbar... just saying.
Elsewhere, there's an outdoor pool, a dock, and a boat lift. There's also an eight-car carage, a wine cellar, guest quarters, and even a wellness wing.
Valve is a privately held company, which means its finances are not public, but we know Newell is one of the richest people in the video game industry with an estimated net worth of $11 billion. He founded Valve, brought Steam into being, and released iconic video games such as Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and Dota. Steam dominates the PC sales market and earns Valve a cut of revenue with each game sale.
In recent years he's lived at sea, rather than close to Valve's Bellevue, Washington headquarters. He owns a number of luxury yachts. The flagship of his fleet, called Leviathan, has an onboard hospital, lab, spa, and of course gaming stations. He’s bought a shipyard, and owns a research organisation called Inkfish.
In July last year, Newell offered a rare insight into his life, talking about his days living, working, and enjoying life on a boat. In conversation with a YouTuber called Zalkar Saliev, who had just 19 subscribers at the time the interview clips went live, the 63-year-old Newell said he worked seven days a week from his bedroom on his superyacht, because it was "fun" and he still "likes working."
