Dell stock surges on deal with Pentagon, making CEO $31B richer overnight

Dell Technologies shares surged over 30% on Friday after the company reported strong first-quarter growth in artificial-intelligence hardware and secured a $9.7 billion contract with the Pentagon to provide software for modernizing its cloud-based systems. The stock jump boosted founder and CEO Michael Dell’s net worth by approximately $34 billion to $244.8 billion, making him the sixth-richest person in the world. Dell’s AI server revenue reached $16.1 billion in the quarter, surpassing its PC unit for the first time, as the company raised its full-year AI revenue forecast to $60 billion.

Dell stock surges on deal with Pentagon, making CEO $31B richer overnight See more of our coverage in your search results. Add The New York Post on Google https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=nypost.com Dell stock surged over 30% on Friday, boosting founder and CEO Michael Dell’s net worth by some $34 billion. The exec’s net worth shot up to $244.8 billion, according to Forbes, lodging him in slot No. 6 on its billionaires list https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/ — just below Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and above Meta big Mark Zuckerberg. Shares in Dell went on a tear after the company reported first quarter growth in artificial-intelligence hardware and details emerged about its new $9.7 billion contract with the Department of War. Dell will provide the department a suit of software under the five-year deal. The Pentagon has said it’s working to revamp its software and cloud-based systems in order to use more AI. The deal came after Trump’s investment accounts bought between $1 million and $5 million of Dell stock in February, the Wall Street Journal noted https://www.wsj.com/tech/dell-stock-soars-on-data-center-revenue-and-pentagon-deal-6645700b . Toward the end of last year, Michael Dell and his wife Susan pledged $6.25 billion https://nypost.com/2025/12/02/business/michael-and-susan-dell-pledge-historic-6-25b-to-seed-trump-accounts-for-kids/ toward the president’s “Trump accounts” initiative https://nypost.com/2026/01/28/business/heres-everything-you-need-to-know-about-trump-accounts/ . The Dells’ investment – which comes to about $250 per account – is meant to help kids pay for an education, start a business or afford a down payment on a house after they turn 18. Long a household name in the personal computer market, Texas-based Dell has recently ramped up its AI hardware business by making servers for data centers. Revenue for the company’s AI server segment reached $16.1 billion in the quarter, $1.5 billion more than its PC unit raked in. Dell’s total revenue shot up 88% over the prior year to $43.8 billion. AI-optimized servers accounted for more than a third of that revenue, surging about eightfold year-over-year. Dell revised upwards its full-year AI revenue expectations to $60 billion. The company said in February it would pull in $50 billion.