Gabe Newell Lives and Works 7 Days a Week on His Yacht

Gabe Newell, co-founder of Valve, shared details about his routine. The 62-year-old billionaire revealed that he works seven days a week in his room aboard his superyacht. He describes the experience as "fun" and claims to feel "retired for a long time" since his daily activities are enjoyable and challenging.

Daily Routine and Focus on New Technologies

In an interview with YouTuber Zalkar Saliev (whose clips were confirmed as authentic by PC Gamer), Newell described his routine: "I get up, work, go diving, work a little more. I do a second dive or go to the gym and exercise. Then I work. I live on a boat, so I just spend time with everyone on the boat."

"I work seven days a week," added Newell. "I'm working from my room, as you can see. I like to work. It's fun. For me, it doesn't feel like work. The kinds of things I do every day are super amazing. I've said this before, but when you retire, you want to stop doing your horrible job and go do what's more fun and enjoyable. And in that sense, I've been retired for a long time."

Newell detailed the types of projects that keep him busy, mentioning work with artificial intelligence, issues related to Steam, and the development of an aerosol pathogen detection device. He also expressed great interest in brain-computer interfaces and neuroscience. "I just work all the time," he said, emphasizing that he doesn't feel "enslaved," but rather motivated by fun. "It's more like I can't sleep because I'm having so much fun."

Valve, known for games like Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Dota 2, Counter-Strike, and the Steam platform, as well as the Steam Deck, employed 336 people in 2021 in its hardware, Steam, and development divisions. Newell previously worked at Microsoft, where he helped create early versions of the Windows operating system, before leaving in 1996 to found Valve with Mike Harrington and develop Half-Life.