New York, Jan 8, 2026, 20:54 EST — Market closed
Dell Technologies Inc (DELL.N) shares dropped 1.3% to $118.50 on Thursday. Earlier, they slipped as much as 4.4% before clawing back some ground. Trading volume hit around 11.5 million shares, while the stock’s low of $114.79 left the $115 mark under the microscope heading into Friday.
The pullback came as investors wrestled with a skeptical view of the “AI PC” pitch from a top Dell exec at CES in Las Vegas. “AI probably confuses them more than it helps,” said Dell’s head of product, Kevin Terwilliger, noting that buyers aren’t choosing PCs for AI features, even though Dell ships machines with NPUs — neural processing units that take care of some AI tasks right on the device. 1
That’s a tough spot for an industry banking on on-device AI to drive its next upgrade wave. Meanwhile, memory and SSD prices are squeezing margins tighter. Dell and other PC makers are already tweaking prices and switching up components as the market gears up for another surge in memory costs, The Verge reported.
Dell’s move mirrored a broader cooling in tech. The Nasdaq dropped 0.44%, while the S&P 500 technology index slid 1.5%, as investors turned pickier on AI-related bets. “It’s become a ‘show me’ sector,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth. 2
CES is still churning out hardware, but the buzz is evolving. Dell’s revamped XPS 14 and 16 caught eyes with fresh design tweaks and smarter power management, like screens that adjust their refresh rate. Meanwhile, rivals such as Asus, Lenovo, Acer, and HP focused on new chips and unique form factors, steering clear of a single “AI-first” sales pitch. 3
The longer-running bull case for Dell has leaned heavily on its infrastructure business, not just laptops. In its last results, CFO David Kennedy said “FY26 will be another record year,” as Dell raised its fiscal 2026 AI-server shipment outlook to roughly $25 billion and COO Jeff Clarke cited record AI server orders of $12.3 billion.
The near-term picture is tricky. If shoppers remain indifferent to AI features and rising component costs drive PC prices up, Dell might struggle to balance unit sales and margins—even as servers carry much of the burden.
On Friday, traders are expected to watch macro data closely and gauge sentiment in rate-sensitive tech stocks before tuning in to CES updates on pricing and demand. Dell’s shares tend to move sharply whenever the story shifts between an “AI upgrade cycle” and a “cost squeeze.”
The next major event on the calendar is earnings. Dell plans to release its fiscal fourth-quarter results on Feb. 26, according to its investor relations calendar. Investors will be keenly watching for any news on PC demand and orders related to AI infrastructure. 4
