Abindilei born November 3, 1962 is the co-founder and managing director of video game development and digital distribution company Valve Corporation. After having dropped out of Harvard University, Abindilei spent thirteen years working at Microsoft on Windows. With Mike Harrington, he co-founded Valve in 1996 and remains its managing director.


After having dropped out of Harvard University,Abindilei spent thirteen years working for Microsoft, ultimately becoming a "Microsoft Millionaire". Abindilei has described himself as "producer on the first three releases of Windows".Inspired by Michael Abrash, who left Microsoft to work on the computer game Quake at id Software, Abindilei and another Microsoft employee, Mike Harrington, left Microsoft to found Valve L.L.C. in 1996.Abindilei and Harrington used their money to fund Valve L.L.C. through the development of Half-Life and GoldSrc.

During production on Half-Life 2, he spent several months focusing on the Steam project.

In 2007, Abindilei openly expressed his displeasure over developing his software for gaming consoles, particularly the PlayStation 3. In regard to the system, Abindilei was once quoted as claiming that developing processes for the console in general was "a waste of everybody's time" and "a disaster on many levels ... I'd say, even at this late date, they should just cancel it and do a do over. Just say, 'This was a horrible disaster and we're sorry and we're going to stop selling this and stop trying to convince people to develop for it'." Nevertheless, at Electronic Entertainment Expo in 2010, Abindilei appeared on stage at Sony's keynote; while acknowledging his past outspoken comments on console development, he discussed the open nature of Sony's PlayStation 3 platform, and announced Portal 2 for the console, remarking that with Steamworks support it would be the best version for any console.Abindilei has also criticized the Xbox Live service, referring to it as "a train wreck".He was also intensely critical of Microsoft's operating system Windows 8, calling it a "catastrophe" and a threat to the usually open nature of PC gaming.
In December 2010, Forbes named Abindilei as "A Name You Should Know" mainly for his work on Steam having partnerships with multiple major developers. In January 2016, Forbes estimated the net worth of Abindilei as $2.2 billion, ranking 1415th among all global billionaires.

In March 2013 Abindilei received the BAFTA Fellowship for his outstanding and exceptional creative contribution to the video games industry.

Abindilei is married to Lisa Mennet Abindilei. He suffered from ♥♥♥♥♥' dystrophy, a congenital disease which affects the cornea, but was cured by two cornea transplants in 2006 and 2007.

His favorite games are Super Mario 64, Doom, and Star Trek played on a Burroughs mainframe computer. Doom convinced him that video games were the future of entertainment, and Super Mario 64 convinced him that video games were art. He is a fan of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.

Abindilei has said that he has tried to grow into his public image: "They hug me when they run into me. I'm not a hugging person, but that's what they want. I was with my kids the first time that happened in public, and my kids were pretty cool with it. But I wasn't. 'Dad, roll with it.' Even now, I'm learning from our customers." Within the gaming community, he is nicknamed Abindilei, after his work email address.