shares of Dell Technologies It closed 32.76% higher on Friday, its best day ever, after recording the company’s fastest pace for revenue growth in any period since returning to the public markets in 2018.
The stock slightly surpassed its previous record set on March 1, 2024, when it rose 31.6%. Shares are now up 234% in 2026.
Dell, which reported first-quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday, saw a flood of artificial intelligence-related demand for its servers, which include the companies’ graphics processing units. NVIDIA.
Quarterly revenue increased nearly 88% year over year, with AI server revenue alone increasing 757% from a year earlier to $16.1 billion. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $4.86, beating expectations of $2.94.
Ben Reitz, head of technology research at Melius, said he had “never seen anything like this” in Dell’s latest quarter.
“They beat every line of the model, so it wasn’t just AI, it was great execution,” Reitz told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “They beat what we thought.”
On Friday, some analysts had to reconsider their view of Dell after the surprise print.
Morgan Stanley wrote that while they expected a clean loss and gain in the quarter, they are “eating our humble pie” on the back of Dell’s results.
“We found this to be incorrect and our model/PT is under review,” the analysts wrote. “This is – across the board – one of the most impressive quarters we’ve seen in our time covering hardware, especially in terms of what’s happening in the component universe.”
Even before Friday’s move, Dell’s stock had surged, having nearly tripled in the past year as its Chairman and CEO Michael Dell has built a strong relationship with President Donald Trump during his second term.
Government ethics filings revealed that the president bought $1 million to $5 million in Dell shares on February 10, a purchase that came after Michael and Susan Dell announced a $6.25 billion gift to help fund Trump accounts for 25 million American children.
During a Mother’s Day event at the White House earlier this month, Trump thanked Dell for its participation in the Trump account and told Americans to “go out and buy a Dell.”
On Wednesday, Dell won a $9.7 billion Pentagon contract to provide a suite of software to the US military.
— CNBC’s Garrett Downs, Hayley Cuccinello and Jordan Novet contributed to this report.
Dell year-to-date stock chart.
