(Sept 2): Dell Technologies Inc shares jumped in extended trading after the company boosted its annual sales forecast by US$25 billion (RM101.11 billion) in a further sign of surging demand for servers to run artificial intelligence (AI) tasks.
Revenue in the fiscal year ending in January 2027 will be about US$192 billion, including US$74 billion from the sale of AI servers, the Texas-based company said Tuesday in a statement. That’s up from an outlook in May of about US$167 billion and topped analysts’ average projection of US$173.8 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The AI server forecast represents a threefold increase over the prior year. This is the fifth straight quarter that Dell’s fiscal year revenue outlook topped estimates.
Amid a boom in AI demand, Dell is securing contracts for machines packed with Nvidia Corp’s AI chips, as well as for traditional servers. That equipment contains the type of central processing units, or CPUs, that have regained momentum because they are useful for tasks like managing AI agents. Dell also is working to tightly control expenses, partly by boosting personal computer prices to account for surging costs of memory chips. The company said its operating expenses are a mere 8% of sales, the lowest in Dell’s history.
“Over the past 12 months, we have booked more than 130 billion dollars in AI server orders,” chief operating officer Jeff Clarke said during a conference call after the results were released. “In just the past two quarters, we have generated almost as much revenue from traditional servers and networking as we have in any prior full year in company history.”
Excluding some costs, the company projected fiscal-year earnings of US$25.50 a share, compared with an average estimate of US$19.10.
The shares rose about 10% in late trading after closing at US$425 in New York. The stock has more than tripled this year, although it has declined 14% since its high on Aug 13. Rival server makers Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Super Micro Computer Inc also gained in extended trading.
Dell’s equipment for AI has won customers like CoreWeave Inc and Nscale Global Holdings Ltd, as well as corporate clients and major AI providers. The company said it had a backlog of US$95 billion in AI servers, a measure of future revenue, at the end of the fiscal second quarter.
Sales jumped 58% to US$47 billion in the period, which ended July 31. Profit, excluding some items, was US$7.04 a share. Analysts, on average, estimated adjusted earnings of US$4.90 a share and US$44.8 billion in revenue.
Dell’s business unit containing personal computers posted a 20% gain in revenue to US$15 billion. The division’s operating income rose 42% to US$1.1 billion. PC shipments throughout the industry are falling while sales rise, owing to increased prices. Dell has protected its profit by passing higher memory costs along to customers.
The company is also benefiting from more profitable sales of storage systems after spending time streamlining product lines and adding features.
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