Paul Allen

Paul Gardner Allen was born on January 21, 1953, in Seattle, Washington, to a librarian father and a fourth-grade teacher mother. He attended the private Lakeside School, where he met Bill Gates and bonded over a shared passion for computers. The two spent their teenage years programming on the school’s Teletype terminals and using the University of Washington’s computer lab until they were banned in 1971 for overstepping their privileges. Along with friends Ric Weiland and Kent Evans, they formed the Lakeside Programming Club, debugging software in exchange for computer time. After Evans died in a climbing accident in 1972, Gates and Allen built an automated class scheduling system for Lakeside and later created Traf-O-Data, a company that made traffic counters using the Intel 8008 processor. Allen scored a perfect 1600 on the SAT and enrolled at Washington State University, joining the Phi Kappa Theta fraternity, but dropped out after two years to work as a programmer for Honeywell near Harvard, where Gates was studying. Allen convinced Gates to leave Harvard to focus on their new venture.

In 1975, Allen and Gates founded Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with their first employee being high school friend Ric Weiland. Allen coined the name “Micro-Soft,” blending “microcomputer” and “software.” In 1980, Microsoft committed to delivering a disk operating system to IBM for the original IBM PC without having one ready. Allen orchestrated the purchase of QDOS, a system written by Tim Paterson at Seattle Computer Products, which allowed Microsoft to secure the contract that drove their eventual wealth and success. The company incorporated in Washington on June 25, 1981, with Gates as president and chairman, and Allen as executive vice president and vice chairman. Their relationship grew tense over small disagreements. Allen left day-to-day work in early 1983 after being diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, though he stayed on the board as vice-chairman. Gates reportedly asked Allen to give up some shares, arguing he had done most of the work on BASIC and wanted a 60–40 split, which Allen accepted; Gates later renegotiated to 64–36. In 1983, Gates tried to buy Allen out at $5 per share, but Allen refused and kept his shares, making him a billionaire when Microsoft went public with his 25.2% stake. The two later repaired their friendship, donating $2.2 million to Lakeside in 1986, and remained close for the rest of Allen’s life.

After leaving Microsoft, Allen and his sister Jody founded Vulcan Inc. in 1986 to manage his business and philanthropy. He owned the Seattle Seahawks (who won Super Bowl XLVIII and LX under his estate’s management) and the Portland Trail Blazers, and was a part-owner of the Seattle Sounders FC. He resigned from Microsoft’s board in 2000 but stayed on as a senior strategy advisor. Allen founded the Allen Institutes for Brain Science, Artificial Intelligence, and Cell Science, as well as Stratolaunch Systems and Apex Learning. He donated over $2 billion to education, conservation, the arts, healthcare, and community services. In 2004, he funded the first crewed private spaceplane, SpaceShipOne. He was named to the Time 100 Most Influential People in 2007 and 2008 and discovered the wrecks of the Japanese battleship Musashi and the USS Indianapolis. Diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2009, Allen died of septic shock related to cancer on October 15, 2018, at age 65. At his death, Forbes estimated his net worth at $20.3 billion. In April 2019, the Stratolaunch aircraft, funded by Allen, made its first flight, becoming the largest aircraft by wingspan in history.