NEW YORK, May 8, 2026, 2:04 PM EDT
- Dell surged 12.6% on Friday, hitting an intraday high of $263.82.
- Traders zeroed in on Dell’s AI-server unit, a TotalEnergies supercomputer deal with Nvidia, and a fresh look at Super Micro, setting off the rally.
- Next up: Dell reports fiscal first-quarter results on May 28.
Investors rushed back into Dell Technologies on Friday, sending the stock up $28.92 to $259.19, not far from its session peak of $263.82. Excitement over a new supercomputer agreement fueled the rally, while renewed scrutiny of legal issues dogging its competitor, Super Micro Computer, also played into Dell’s surge.
This shift is significant: Dell isn’t just a PC and corporate hardware name now. Investors are starting to price it as a key provider of servers, storage, and networking equipment for the data centers powering AI models.
Friday’s move wiped out losses from the previous session. Dell shares picked up roughly 6% in early trade, TipRanks said, as investors zeroed in on Super Micro’s chip-smuggling saga. The platform also pointed out that Dell’s average analyst price target sat at $195.85, which is less than where the stock’s trading now.
TotalEnergies on May 6 announced a deal with Dell and Nvidia to build Pangea 5, a new supercomputer set for its research hub in Pau, France. The energy company is putting more than 100 million euros into the project, which will boost its computing capacity sixfold. Adrian McDonald, Dell EMEA president, said the system should “accelerate discovery, increase efficiency and drive the energy transition forward.” TotalEnergies.com
Dell is expanding its AI hardware lineup with AMD. The company said in a blog post that, starting July 2026, its PowerEdge XE7745 and R7725 servers will add support for AMD Instinct MI350P PCIe GPUs. That move lets enterprises run generative and agentic AI—systems handling multi-step workflows—on existing data center setups, avoiding the need for a redesign.
Numbers from Dell help make the case for the stock’s momentum. In February, the company reported it wrapped up more than $64 billion in AI-optimized server orders for fiscal 2026, shipped $25 billion of that, and rolled into fiscal 2027 with a $43 billion backlog. “The AI opportunity is transforming our company,” Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke said. Dell’s guidance: around $50 billion in fiscal 2027 AI-optimized server revenue. Dell Technologies
On May 7, Harsh Chauhan at Motley Fool called Dell an overlooked beneficiary of the AI infrastructure surge, pointing to projections for global AI infrastructure spend to jump from $765 billion in 2026 up to $1.6 trillion by 2031. The column also highlighted ABI Research data showing Dell’s slice of the AI server market at roughly 20% for 2024.
The Super Micro situation is murkier. On Friday, Reuters relayed that Bloomberg had pointed to Bangkok-based OBON Corp as the company suspected of pushing Super Micro servers with Nvidia chips into China. For its part, Alibaba told Reuters it doesn’t have any business relationship with Super Micro, OBON, or the brokers named, adding it’s never run banned Nvidia chips in its data centers.
Back in March, U.S. authorities charged Super Micro co-founder Yih-Shyan Liaw, sales manager Ruei-Tsang Chang, and contractor Ting-Wei Sun with moving U.S.-manufactured servers into China by way of Taiwan and Southeast Asia. Notably, Super Micro itself wasn’t named as a defendant and said it had been cooperative. Analysts at Melius Research, in comments to Reuters, flagged Dell as possibly standing to gain, thanks to its size and relationship with Nvidia. Over at Gabelli Funds, Hendi Susanto noted that investors might start to fret about “customers avoiding potential scrutiny.” Reuters
Super Micro isn’t backing down just yet. Earlier this week, the company projected stronger-than-expected revenue and adjusted earnings for the quarter. CFO David Weigand said allocations from suppliers like Nvidia, AMD, and Intel remain steady, with “no change in allocations.” Shares of Super Micro climbed roughly 4.8% on Friday. Reuters
Cost is the main concern here. Reuters said on Friday that memory chip prices soared, doubling in the first quarter, with another jump—up to 63%—expected in the current period as AI data-center demand tightens supply. Dell sells both AI servers and PCs, so if memory and component costs keep rising and Dell can’t pass on those extra charges, margins could take a hit.
Dell will post its fiscal 2027 Q1 numbers on May 28, set for 3:30 p.m. CDT. The key focus: is the AI backlog finally translating into revenue and profit at a pace that backs up Friday’s surge?
