Paul Gardner Allen was born on January 21, 1953, and passed away on October 15, 2018. He was an American businessman, computer programmer, and investor. He helped start Microsoft Corporation with his childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975. This event led to the development of personal computers during the 1970s and 1980s. Allen discovered the remains of famous warships, such as the IJN Musashi and USS Indianapolis. Forbes listed him as one of the wealthiest people in American history, with a net worth of about $20.3 billion when he died in 2018.

In early 1983, Allen left his daily work at Microsoft after being diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma. He remained on the company’s board as vice-chairman. He and his sister, Jody Allen, created Vulcan Inc. in 1986. This private company managed his business and charitable work. At the time of his death, Allen had investments in technology, media, scientific research, real estate, private space travel, and other industries. He owned the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League and the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association. He also owned a share of the Seattle Sounders FC in Major League Soccer. Under the management of the Allen Estate, the Seahawks won Super Bowl XLVIII and Super Bowl LX. The team also reached two other Super Bowls (XLIX and XL). In 2000, Allen left his position on Microsoft’s board and became a senior strategy advisor to the company’s leaders.

Allen started the Allen Institutes for Brain Science, Artificial Intelligence, and Cell Science. He also founded companies like Stratolaunch Systems and Apex Learning. He donated over $2 billion to support education, wildlife and environmental conservation, the arts, healthcare, and community services. In 2004, he funded the first crewed private spaceplane, SpaceShipOne. He received many awards and was listed in Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2007 and 2008.

Allen was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2009. He died on October 15, 2018, at age 65, due to septic shock caused by cancer. In April 2019, shortly after his death, the Stratolaunch aircraft, which Allen funded, made its first flight and became the largest aircraft in the world by wingspan.

Early life

Allen was born on January 21, 1953, in Seattle, Washington. His parents were Kenneth Sam Allen, a librarian, and Edna Faye Allen, a fourth-grade teacher. From 1965 to 1971, Allen attended Lakeside School, a private school in Seattle. There, he became friends with Bill Gates, who shared his interest in computers. They used Lakeside’s Teletype terminals to practice programming on shared computer systems. They also used the University of Washington’s computer science lab for personal research and programming until they were asked to stop in 1971 for misusing their access.

Gates and Allen worked with Ric Weiland and Kent Evans, Gates’ childhood friend, to create the Lakeside Programming Club. They tested software for Computer Center Corporation to earn extra computer time. In 1972, after Kent Evans died in a climbing accident, Gates asked Allen to help finish a scheduling system for Lakeside. Together, they started Traf-O-Data, a company that made traffic counters using the Intel 8008 processor. Allen said he and Gates sometimes searched through trash for computer program code during their teenage years.

Allen scored a perfect 1600 on the SAT and attended Washington State University. He joined the Phi Kappa Theta fraternity but left school after two years. He worked as a programmer for Honeywell in Boston, near Harvard University, where Gates was studying. Allen encouraged Gates to leave Harvard to focus on starting Microsoft.

Microsoft

In 1975, Allen and Gates started Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They began selling a program called a BASIC interpreter, and their first employee was Ric Weiland, a high school friend who worked with them. Allen suggested the name "Micro-Soft," which combined the words "microcomputer" and "software."

In 1980, Microsoft agreed to provide a disk operating system (DOS) for IBM's first personal computer, even though they had not yet created one. Allen led the effort to buy QDOS, a system written by Tim Paterson, who worked at Seattle Computer Products. This deal allowed Microsoft to supply the DOS used in IBM's computers, which helped Allen and Gates gain wealth and success.

On June 25, 1981, Microsoft changed its structure to become an officially registered company in Washington state, later renaming itself "Microsoft Corporation, Inc." During this change, Gates became president and chairman of the board, while Allen became executive vice president and vice chairman. Over time, their relationship became difficult, and they often argued about small matters. In 1982, Allen left Microsoft after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, though he remained on the board as vice chairman. Gates asked Allen to give him some of his shares to balance the workload, and Allen agreed to split the company’s ownership 60–40 in Gates’ favor. Gates later changed the split to 64–36. In 1983, Gates tried to buy Allen’s shares for $5 each, but Allen refused. When Microsoft went public, Allen owned 25.2% of the company, making him a billionaire. Gates later improved their relationship, and both donated $2.2 million to their childhood school, Lakeside, in 1986. They remained friends for the rest of Allen’s life.

In 2000, Allen left the Microsoft board but continued working as a senior strategy advisor. In 2014, he still owned 100 million shares of Microsoft.

Businesses and investments

Vulcan Capital is part of Vulcan Inc., a company based in Seattle that manages Paul Allen’s personal wealth. In 2013, Allen opened a new Vulcan Capital office in Palo Alto, California, to invest in new technology and internet companies.

Allen held 43 patents from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. He supported several apps, including Saga, a mobile app developed by A.R.O.; SportStream, a social app for sports fans; and Fayve, a content-management app.

In 1992, Allen and David Liddle co-founded Interval Research Corporation, a research and business development company in Silicon Valley. The company closed in 2000 after creating over 300 patents. Four of these patents were involved in a legal case Allen filed in 2010 against companies like AOL, Apple, and Google.

In November 1993, Allen invested more than $325 million to buy 80% of Ticketmaster. In 1997, Home Shopping Network purchased 47.5% of Allen’s shares in Ticketmaster for $209 million worth of their own stock.

In 1992, Allen invested $30 million in a small internet service provider. He later owned 25% of the company and sold his shares in 1994 for $70 million. He did not sell his shares during the dot com boom, which could have earned him $10 billion, but he also avoided losses during the dot com bust later in the decade.

In 1998, Allen bought a controlling interest in Charter Communications. In 2009, Charter filed for bankruptcy, and Allen lost about $7 billion. After bankruptcy, Allen kept a small share of the company, worth $535 million in 2012. In 2016, Charter merged with Time Warner Cable, making it the second-largest cable company in the U.S.

On October 4, 2004, Allen confirmed he was the sole investor in SpaceShipOne, a spacecraft designed by aerospace engineer Burt Rutan. The spacecraft was developed by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, a partnership between Allen and Rutan’s company, Scaled Composites. SpaceShipOne reached an altitude of 111,996 meters and won the Ansari X Prize, a $10 million competition for private spaceflight.

In 2011, Allen created Stratolaunch Systems, a company planning to build a large aircraft to launch rockets into space. The project aims to be the first fully private space transport system. Stratolaunch partnered with Orbital ATK and Scaled Composites. The aircraft made its first flight in 2019, becoming the largest airplane in history by wingspan. However, Stratolaunch Systems stopped operating by May 2019.

Allen’s Vulcan Real Estate division helped develop the South Lake Union neighborhood in Seattle. Vulcan built over 590,000 square meters of residential, office, retail, and research spaces. Vulcan also supported the South Lake Union Streetcar, a public transportation line in Seattle. In 2012, Vulcan sold a large office complex to Amazon for $1.16 billion, one of the most expensive office deals in Seattle.

Allen funded the development of Portland’s Moda Center, which he bought in 2007. He also helped build CenturyLink Field in Seattle with a $130 million investment. In 1998, Allen bought Seattle’s Cinerama Theater and upgraded it with 3-D technology and digital sound. In 2014, the theater installed the world’s first commercial digital laser projector. Allen also opened the Hospital Club in London in 2004, a space for creative professionals.

In 1988, Allen bought the Portland Trail Blazers NBA team for $70 million. He helped fund the Moda Center, the team’s home arena. The Trail Blazers reached the playoffs 19 times, including the NBA Finals in 1990 and 1992. In 2021, the team was valued at $2.09 billion.

In 1997, Allen bought the Seattle Seahawks NFL team from Ken Behring. The team moved to Lumen Field in 2002 after Allen invested in stadium upgrades. The Seahawks won Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014 and were valued at $1.33 billion in 2014.

Vulcan Sports & Entertainment, part of Allen’s company, owns a share of Seattle Sounders FC, a Major League Soccer team. The team plays at CenturyLink Field and has sold out every home game since its start in 2009.

Philanthropy

Paul G. Allen gave more than $2 billion to support science, technology, education, wildlife conservation, the arts, and community services during his lifetime. He and his sister Jody started the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation to manage part of his charitable donations. By 2015, the foundation had given over $494 million to more than 1,500 nonprofit organizations.

In 2010, Allen joined The Giving Pledge, a group of wealthy individuals who promise to give at least half of their money to charitable causes. He was honored for his work with awards like the Andrew Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy and Inside Philanthropy’s “Philanthropist of the Year.”

In 2003, Allen created the Allen Institute for Brain Science with a $100 million donation to study how the human brain works. He later gave $500 million to the institute, making it his largest charitable gift. The institute shares research tools with scientists worldwide and has projects like the Allen Mouse Brain Atlas, Allen Human Brain Atlas, and Allen Mouse Brain Connectivity Atlas. It helped shape the White House’s BRAIN Initiative and the Human Brain Project.

The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2) was founded in 2014 to research artificial intelligence. It is modeled after the Brain Science Institute and led by researcher Oren Etzioni. By 2015, AI2 had started four projects: Semantic Scholar, Euclid, Plato, and Aristo, which aims to create an AI system that can pass an 8th-grade science test.

In 2014, Allen donated $100 million to create the Allen Institute for Cell Science in Seattle. The institute studied cells to find treatments for diseases and shared all its research online.

The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, launched in 2016 with $100 million, supports groundbreaking research in bioscience to speed up scientific discoveries. It backs ideas that are at the edge of current knowledge.

Allen started the Allen Distinguished Investigators Awards in 2010 to fund early-stage research projects that struggle to get money from traditional sources. He also gave $30 million to build the Allen Telescope Array for the SETI project.

A species of flower fly was named after Allen to honor his work in dipterology, the study of flies.

In 2022, the Paul Allen estate created the Fund for Science and Technology (FFST) with an initial $3.1 billion endowment. The fund plans to spend at least $500 million on bioscience, the environment, and AI. It is led by Lynda Stuart and chaired by Jody Allen.

Allen gave over $7 million to count African elephant populations, the largest such effort since the 1970s. The survey, completed in 2015, showed a rapid decline in elephant numbers.

He supported the University of British Columbia’s Sea Around Us Project in 2014 to improve data on global fisheries and fight illegal fishing. He also funded FishBase, an online database about fish, and the Global FinPrint initiative, a three-year study of sharks and rays in coral reefs.

Allen supported Washington State Initiative 1401, which banned the sale of products made from 10 endangered species. The law passed in 2015.

With the U.S. Department of Transportation, Allen and Vulcan Inc. launched the Smart City Challenge in 2015. The contest encouraged cities to improve transportation systems. Columbus, Ohio, won the challenge.

As a member of the International SeaKeepers Society, Allen used his megayachts to host oceanographic monitoring systems.

Allen funded microgrids in Kenya to provide independent power and support communities. He also invested in Mawingu Networks and Off Grid Electric to bring internet and solar energy to rural Africa.

In 2014, Allen gave at least $100 million to fight the Ebola virus in West Africa, making him the largest private donor in the crisis. He created TackleEbola.org to raise awareness and support organizations like the Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières. In 2015, he hosted the Ebola Innovation Summit in San Francisco.

In 2015, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation gave $11 million in grants to prevent future virus outbreaks.

In 2012, Allen and his team tried to recover the ship’s bell from the HMS Hood, a World War II ship, but failed due to bad weather. They succeeded in 2015 and displayed the bell in a museum in 2016.

Allen funded the research ship RV Petrel, which discovered the wreck of the Japanese battleship Musashi in 2015 and other shipwrecks in later years.

Allen created nonprofit museums to display his collections. These include:
– The Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP), a museum in Seattle that opened in 2000.
– The Flying Heritage Collection, which displays restored military aircraft from World War II, opened in 2004.
– The STARTUP Gallery, an exhibit in Albuquerque about the history of the Mimbres people.

Personal life

Paul Allen was interested in romantic love and wanted to have a family, but he never married or had children. His plans to marry his first girlfriend were canceled because he felt he was not ready to get married at age 23. Some people thought he was reclusive. In the 1990s, he bought Rock Hudson’s Los Angeles home from film director John Landis and added a recording studio called Neptune Valley to the property. After his death, his family sold the home for $56 million.

At age 16, Allen received his first electric guitar. He was inspired to play it after listening to Jimi Hendrix. In 2000, he played rhythm guitar on an independently produced album called Grown Men. In 2013, he released an album titled Everywhere at Once through Sony’s Legacy Recordings. The album was described by PopMatters.com as "a quality release of blues-rock that's enjoyable from start to finish."

On February 7, 2018, Quincy Jones, in an interview with New York magazine’s Vulture website, praised Allen’s talent, saying he "sings and plays just like Hendrix."

Allen’s 414-foot (126 m) yacht, Octopus, was launched in 2003. As of 2025, it ranked 26th among the world’s largest motor yachts. The yacht has two helicopters, a submarine, a remote-operated vehicle, a swimming pool, a music studio, and a basketball court. Octopus is part of AMVER, a global ship reporting system that helps rescue people in distress at sea. The yacht also hosted celebrity parties during the Cannes Film Festival, where Allen and his band performed with musicians like Usher and Dave Stewart. Octopus was used in searches for a missing American pilot and officers, as well as in the study of a rare fish called a coelacanth. After Allen’s death in 2018, the yacht was refitted and sold for $325 million.

Allen also owned Tatoosh, one of the world’s 100 largest yachts. In January 2016, Tatoosh caused serious damage to about 1,300 square meters of coral reef in the Cayman Islands. In April 2016, the Cayman Islands Department of Environment and Allen’s Vulcan Inc. completed a restoration plan to help the coral recover and protect it in the future.

Idea Man

In 2011, Allen's memoir, Idea Man: A Memoir by the Co-founder of Microsoft, was published by Portfolio, a division of Penguin Group. The book describes how Allen became interested in computers at a young age, had the idea for Microsoft, asked his friend Bill Gates to join him, and started a company that became the world's most successful software company. It also explains Allen's business and creative activities after he left Microsoft in 1983, including his work on SpaceShipOne, his purchase of the Portland Trail Blazers and Seattle Seahawks, his love for music, and his support for scientific research. The book appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list. A paperback version, which included a new epilogue, was published on October 30, 2012.

Death

Allen was diagnosed with Stage 1-A Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1982. His cancer was successfully treated with several months of radiation therapy. In 2009, Allen was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The cancer was successfully treated but returned in 2018. It eventually caused his death from septic shock on October 15, 2018. He was 65 years old. Allen's sister, Jody Allen, was named executor and trustee of his estate.

Several Seattle-area landmarks, including the Space Needle, Columbia Center, and Lumen Field, as well as various Microsoft offices across the United States, were illuminated in blue on November 3, 2018, as a tribute to Allen. He was also honored by his early business partner and lifelong friend, Bill Gates, who said in a statement:

Awards and recognition

Paul Allen received many awards in different areas, such as sports, technology, helping others, and the arts:

• In 2004, Allen, Burt Rutan, Doug Shane, Mike Melvill, and Brian Binnie won the Collier Trophy for their work on SpaceShipOne.
• On March 9, 2005, Allen, Rutan, and the SpaceShipOne team were given the 2005 National Air and Space Museum Trophy for Current Achievement.
• In 2007 and 2008, Allen was listed in the Time 100 Most Influential People in the World.
• He received the Vanguard Award from the National Cable & Telecommunications Association on May 20, 2008.
• On October 30, 2008, the Seattle-King County Association of Realtors honored Allen for his long-term support of nonprofit organizations in the Pacific Northwest and his lifetime donations of nearly US$1 billion.
• In 2009, Allen’s work as the owner of the Portland Trail Blazers was recognized with an Oregon Sports Award.
• On October 26, 2010, Allen was awarded the W. J. S. Krieg Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to neuroscience by the Cajal Club.
• On January 26, 2011, at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, Allen was named Seattle Sports Commission Sports Citizen of the Year, an award later renamed the Paul Allen Award.
• In 2011, Allen was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
• On October 15, 2012, Allen received the Eli and Edythe Broad Award for Philanthropy in the Arts at the National Arts Awards.
• On February 2, 2014, Allen received a Super Bowl ring after the Seattle Seahawks won the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
• On October 22, 2014, Allen received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Seattle Business magazine for his impact in the Puget Sound region.
• On December 31, 2014, Inside Philanthropy named Allen their first "Philanthropist of the Year" for his efforts to stop the Ebola outbreak, build a new research center in Seattle, and protect the world’s oceans.
• In 2014, Allen was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame.
• On July 18, 2015, the Ischia Global Film & Music Festival gave Allen the Ischia Humanitarian Award for his contributions to social issues through his charity work.
• On August 25, 2015, Allen was named a recipient of the Andrew Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy for his efforts to save endangered species, fight Ebola, research the human brain, support the arts, protect oceans, and improve education for girls.
• On October 3, 2015, the Center for Infectious Disease Research gave Allen the 2015 "Champion for Global Health Award" for his leadership in fighting Ebola.
• On December 10, 2016, Allen, as co-owner of the Seattle Sounders FC, won the 2016 MLS Cup.
• On March 14, 2019, Allen was one of two recipients of the Aviation Week & Space Technology 2019 Philip J. Klass Award for Lifetime Achievement.
• On October 3, 2019, Allen was posthumously inducted into the Seattle Seahawks Ring of Honor. He was the 12th person inducted, a number that matches the fans’ symbol, 12.

• Washington State University gave Allen its highest honor, the Regents' Distinguished Alumnus Award.
• Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University gave Allen an honorary doctorate in philosophy.
• The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s Watson School of Biological Sciences gave Allen an honorary doctorate of Science.
• The École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne gave Allen an honorary degree.