Gabe Newell, founder of Bellevue's Valve, buys $70.8M Florida mansion

Gabe Newell, who founded Bellevue-based video game company Valve, has reportedly purchased a Florida mansion that includes a tunnel to the ocean for $70.8 million.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Newell recently paid $70.8 million for the waterfront estate in Manalapan, Fla., previously owned by the founders of mechanical subcontracting company Pan-Pacific Mechanical, Cindy and Ron McMackin.

If you're not into video games, you've likely never heard of Newell. But most gamers probably have.

Newell is widely beloved among PC gamers for helping create hugely influential video games, such as Half-Life" and "Portal. And, as gamers tend to do, they've turned him into a meme - an internet folk hero of sorts called "GabeN" or "Lord GabeN."

He got his start working at Microsoft and has lived in Seattle for decades after he co-founded the video game company with a former Microsoft colleague in 1996. Less than a decade later, Valve launched its digital gaming storefront Steam, which became widely popular.

Today, Newell remains Valve's president and is worth a whopping $11 billion.

Although his company and family remain in the Seattle area, the gaming magnate has lived at sea full time since 2021. Newell owns a fleet of yachts, including a 363-foot megayacht called Leviathan, and operates a private marine research organization called Inkfish.

But it appears the liveaboard is now exploring much farther from the Seattle area.

The 20,000-square-foot house spans from the ocean to the Intracoastal Waterway, with a private dock and a tunnel leading directly from the house to the ocean shore. (But if the 165 feet of water frontage feels too far, the house has a pool.)

Palm Beach real estate broker Margit Brandt, who handles some of the priciest transactions in Florida's ultraluxury real estate market, represented the property but declined to comment on the details of the transaction or confirm Newell as the buyer.

Still, she said the area attracts those seeking "a private, secluded ocean-to-lake lifestyle only a few minutes away from all the action in Palm Beach."

It's unclear whether the mega-mansion will be Newell's permanent residence, although it certainly costs more than his previous homes in Washington.

Since the 1990s, Newell has owned and sold several Seattle-area properties, including a Capitol Hill home with a view of downtown Bellevue, a waterfront home along Lake Washington and a one-bedroom home slightly inland from the waterfront home.

He and his now ex-wife also owned a beachside vacation residence on Washington's Long Beach Peninsula near Oceanside.

After the couple divorced around 2016, the waterfront home went to Newell's ex-wife and the nearby one-bedroom home went to Newell. Six months ago, he gifted that property to one of his two sons.

Newell's Seattle-area homes are each worth between $1 million and $5 million today - a tidy sum but nowhere near what his new ocean-tunnel-equipped mega-mansion is worth.

Forbes estimates that Newell owns at least half of Valve, which seems to be massively profitable for a company with only a few hundred employees. Valve isn't public, but gaming analytics company Alinea Analytics estimates that Steam alone generated over $16 billion last year.

If Newell does indeed own a 50% stake in the company, that's a major annual payout.

Newell could not be reached for comment. Valve did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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This story was originally published June 18, 2026 at 12:45 PM.