Gabe Logan Newell is born in Colorado. Details of his early childhood are relatively scarce, but it's known he would eventually find himself drawn to the world of computers and programming, laying the foundation for his future career.

Newell attended Harvard University in the early 1980s, a testament to his intellectual capabilities. However, like other tech luminaries such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, he famously dropped out before graduating. He found the lure of the burgeoning software industry too strong to resist, and felt that experience in the real world would outweigh the benefits of a degree.