Latest news with #MichaelDell
Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Dell Taps Qualcomm's AI 100 Chips For Upcoming Pro Max Plus Laptops
At Dell Technologies World 2025 in Las Vegas earlier this month, as you might expect in this day and age, many of the announcements and releases revolved around AI and AI-driven solutions. The day one and two keynote speeches from Michael Dell and Jeff Clarke, both specifically highlighted advancements in AI, from the cloud to the edge, along with AI factories and modern workplace solutions. As a long-time accelerated computing enthusiast, I thought one particular announcement, regarding an upcoming Dell Pro Max Plus mobile workstation, flew a bit under the radar. The Dell Pro Max Plus is a premium 18' desktop-replacement class laptop designed specifically with AI engineers and data scientists in mind. In fact, it is the first machine of its kind to feature not one, but two enterprise-grade discrete NPUs, namely the Qualcomm AI 100. Each AI 100 features 16 of Qualcomm's 7th-gen AI cores with 144 MB of on-chip memory, and each is capable of delivering up to 400 Int8 TOPs and 200 FP16 TOPs of compute performance. Each AI 100 is also paired to 32GB of LPDDR4X memory (64GB in total) offering up to 136GB/s of peak bandwidth, but the entire complement of AI compute resources and memory are presented to the system as a single resource pool. Qualcomm's AI 100 accelerators in the Dell Pro Max Plus are integrated on a custom PCB, that is attached via PCI Express, and installed in the laptop where a discrete GPU would normally reside. Incorporating the discrete AI accelerators with a relatively large memory capacity in this way allows the system to handle large AI models locally, without relying on the cloud, that are simply too much for most on-processor NPUs and discrete GPUs. This is a key differentiator for the Dell Pro Max Plus; the ability to process AI workloads directly on the device enhances security, reduces latency, and ultimately gives users greater control over their proprietary data. Dell's decision to integrate a discrete AI accelerator card rather than a GPU does have some drawbacks, however. While the Qualcomm AI 100s with 64GB of memory will be capable of running models that are simply too large to fit in the 24GB of memory available in even NVIDIA's current, most powerful laptop GPU, the NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell Generation, these Qualcomm chips don't handle any graphics processing or 3D rendering. That will obviously limit gaming on the system (which likely isn't a concern for the users targeted by the Dell Pro Max Plus), but it will also hinder some creator and pro-vis workloads as a result. The Dell Pro Max Plus is built around Intel's most powerful Core Ultra 200HX series processors and offers up to 96GB of system memory, so it'll have plenty of CPU horsepower and a relatively capable integrated GPU with a modern media engine, but neither can make up for the lack of a discrete GPU in some workloads. There are also products built around AMD's 'Strix Halo' Ryzen AI Max series of processors to consider. Strix Halo has a somewhat unique design that combines up to 16 CPU cores with a powerful GPU, connected to system memory over a 256-bit wide memory interface. In a system with 128GB of memory, the GPU in the Ryzen AI Max series can access up to 96GB of memory, which would technically allow it to process even larger models than the pair of AI 100s in the Dell Pro Max Plus, but without as much compute muscle. All that said, the upcoming Dell Pro Max Plus with Qualcomm AI 100s still represents an interesting value proposition for AI engineers and data scientists that can benefit from a mobile form factor. The AI PC landscape is still taking shape, but there's no denying it's here to stay and the need for AI compute resources isn't going away anytime soon. It's great to see Dell taking a chance on an innovative solution and I suspect the Dell Pro Max Plus has many potential users intrigued.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Dell (NYSE:DELL) Surprises With Q1 Sales, Provides Optimistic Revenue Guidance for Next Quarter
Computer hardware and IT solutions company Dell (NYSE:DELL) announced better-than-expected revenue in Q1 CY2025, with sales up 5.1% year on year to $23.38 billion. On top of that, next quarter's revenue guidance ($29 billion at the midpoint) was surprisingly good and 15.8% above what analysts were expecting. Its non-GAAP profit of $1.55 per share was 8.4% below analysts' consensus estimates. Is now the time to buy Dell? Find out in our full research report. Revenue: $23.38 billion vs analyst estimates of $23.13 billion (5.1% year-on-year growth, 1.1% beat) Adjusted EPS: $1.55 vs analyst expectations of $1.69 (8.4% miss) Adjusted EBITDA: $1.29 billion vs analyst estimates of $2.45 billion (5.5% margin, 47.3% miss) Revenue Guidance for the full year is $103 billion at the midpoint, roughly in line with what analysts were expecting Adjusted EPS guidance for the full year is $7.99 at the midpoint, missing analyst estimates by 12.9% Operating Margin: 5%, in line with the same quarter last year Free Cash Flow Margin: 9.5%, up from 2.1% in the same quarter last year Market Capitalization: $77.76 billion Founded by Michael Dell in his University of Texas dorm room in 1984 with just $1,000, Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL) provides hardware, software, and services that help organizations build their IT infrastructure, manage cloud environments, and enable digital transformation. A company's long-term performance is an indicator of its overall quality. Any business can have short-term success, but a top-tier one grows for years. With $96.7 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, Dell is a behemoth in the business services sector and benefits from economies of scale, giving it an edge in distribution. This also enables it to gain more leverage on its fixed costs than smaller competitors and the flexibility to offer lower prices. However, its scale is a double-edged sword because it's challenging to maintain high growth rates when you've already captured a large portion of the addressable market. To expand meaningfully, Dell likely needs to tweak its prices, innovate with new offerings, or enter new markets. As you can see below, Dell's 1.4% annualized revenue growth over the last five years was sluggish. This shows it failed to generate demand in any major way and is a rough starting point for our analysis. We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within business services, a half-decade historical view may miss recent innovations or disruptive industry trends. Dell's recent performance shows its demand has slowed as its revenue was flat over the last two years. This quarter, Dell reported year-on-year revenue growth of 5.1%, and its $23.38 billion of revenue exceeded Wall Street's estimates by 1.1%. Company management is currently guiding for a 15.9% year-on-year increase in sales next quarter. Looking further ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 8% over the next 12 months, an improvement versus the last two years. This projection is particularly healthy for a company of its scale and implies its newer products and services will spur better top-line performance. Software is eating the world and there is virtually no industry left that has been untouched by it. That drives increasing demand for tools helping software developers do their jobs, whether it be monitoring critical cloud infrastructure, integrating audio and video functionality, or ensuring smooth content streaming. Click here to access a free report on our 3 favorite stocks to play this generational megatrend. Operating margin is a key measure of profitability. Think of it as net income - the bottom line - excluding the impact of taxes and interest on debt, which are less connected to business fundamentals. Dell was profitable over the last five years but held back by its large cost base. Its average operating margin of 5.5% was weak for a business services business. On the plus side, Dell's operating margin rose by 2 percentage points over the last five years, as its sales growth gave it operating leverage. This quarter, Dell generated an operating margin profit margin of 5%, in line with the same quarter last year. This indicates the company's overall cost structure has been relatively stable. Revenue trends explain a company's historical growth, but the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) points to the profitability of that growth – for example, a company could inflate its sales through excessive spending on advertising and promotions. Dell's EPS grew at a weak 2.9% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years. On the bright side, this performance was better than its 1.4% annualized revenue growth and tells us the company became more profitable on a per-share basis as it expanded. Diving into the nuances of Dell's earnings can give us a better understanding of its performance. As we mentioned earlier, Dell's operating margin was flat this quarter but expanded by 2 percentage points over the last five years. On top of that, its share count shrank by 6.8%. These are positive signs for shareholders because improving profitability and share buybacks turbocharge EPS growth relative to revenue growth. In Q1, Dell reported EPS at $1.55, up from $1.27 in the same quarter last year. Despite growing year on year, this print missed analysts' estimates. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects Dell's full-year EPS of $8.27 to grow 16.7%. We were impressed by Dell's optimistic revenue guidance for next quarter, which blew past analysts' expectations. We were also happy its revenue narrowly outperformed Wall Street's estimates. On the other hand, its full-year EPS guidance missed and its operating income fell short of Wall Street's estimates. Overall, this quarter was mixed, but it seems like expectations were fairly low. The stock traded up 5.2% to $119.49 immediately following the results. Should you buy the stock or not? When making that decision, it's important to consider its valuation, business qualities, as well as what has happened in the latest quarter. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it's free. Sign in to access your portfolio
Globe and Mail
23-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Dell Just Scored Deeper Nvidia Ties. Should You Buy DELL Stock Now?
Dell (DELL) has underperformed its tech peers over the past year, despite its investments in artificial intelligence and performance of its AI server business. Shares are down nearly 30% over the past 52 weeks, while Nvidia (NVDA) is up nearly 30%. However, its latest announcement to join forces with powerhouse Nvidia could change that. The company announced that it would partner with Nvidia to unveil its latest Dell AI Factory. CEO Michael Dell said 'Our job is to make AI more accessible. With the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA, enterprises can manage the entire AI lifecycle across use cases, from training to deployment, at any scale.' This latest announcement reflects a 'deepening' of its collaboration with Nvidia. Is this enough for investors to make Dell stock a part of their portfolios? Dell Is Down for the Year (Albeit Modestly) On a 5-year basis, DELL stock has rallied more than 350% as Covid-induced lockdowns led to soaring demand for its products. However, in the recent past, the share price performance has been lackluster. The stock is down more than 3% in the year-to-date and close to 30% over the past 52 weeks. Mixed Q4 (With Some Worrying Signs) Dell's numbers for the latest quarter were a mixed bag, with earnings surpassing Street expectations but revenues missing. The company reported total net revenues of $23.9 billion, up 7% from the previous year. Yet, it missed the consensus estimate of $24.57 billion. Earnings surged by 30% on a year-over-year basis to $2.68 per share, exceeding expectations of $2.52 per share. Notably, this marked the ninth consecutive quarter of earnings beats from the company. Cash flow from operations for the quarter came in at $585 million, 68% lower than the previous year's figure of $1.5 billion. Dell ended the quarter with a cash balance of $3.6 billion, lower than its short-term debt levels of $5.2 billion. In terms of guidance, Dell expects revenue to be between $101 billion and $105 billion, up 8% year over year at the midpoint of $103 billion. For Q1, the company expects revenue of between $22.5 billion and $23.5 billion, up 3% year over year at the midpoint of $23 billion. Encouraging Drivers Enthusiasm surrounding the company is largely fueled by the strength and momentum of its forward-looking strategies. To begin with, Dell's AI server business continues to impress, underpinned by a $9 billion backlog and a rapidly expanding deal pipeline. These figures strongly suggest that the company is well on track to surpass its projected $15 billion shipment floor in its fiscal 2026. Since the debut of the flagship 9680 platform, this backlog has been growing every quarter, fueled by rising interest from both cloud service providers and enterprise clients. Another powerful tailwind is the expected replacement cycle tied to the end of Windows 10 support, scheduled for October 2025. This event is likely to unlock a wave of deferred commercial PC upgrades, and Dell is positioned to be a primary beneficiary. The company's Client Solutions Group has already posted three straight quarters of rising commercial demand, and signs point to further acceleration as businesses prepare to modernize their aging systems. With next-generation AI PCs entering the market and Dell holding the top spot in commercial AI PC share, the company is well-placed to capture a disproportionate portion of this pent-up refresh demand in the first half of next year. Further, Dell's strategic relationship with Nvidia is another key differentiator. The collaboration involves integrating Nvidia's most advanced GPUs into Dell's PowerEdge server lineup. This partnership gives Dell a competitive edge in supplying AI-optimized infrastructure tailored for training, inference, and large-scale data applications. As Nvidia continues to see overwhelming demand for its chips, Dell remains a key partner riding the broader wave of AI-driven computing needs. Meanwhile, Dell's Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG) also continues to be a critical growth lever. Current projections suggest Dell's AI server shipments could climb to $15 billion in the current fiscal year, up from $10 billion the year before. From a valuation standpoint, Dell appears attractively priced relative to its peers. The stock trades at a forward price-earnings ratio of 14.2x, a price-sales ratio of 0.82x, and a price-cashflow of 14.4x — all of which are well below the sector averages. These discounted multiples, combined with Dell's strategic execution and exposure to structural growth trends, present a compelling narrative for long-term investors. Analyst Opinions on DELL Stock Keeping these factors in mind, analysts have deemed DELL stock a 'Strong Buy' with a mean target price of $130.72. This indicates upside potential of about 17% from current levels. Out of 20 analysts covering the stock, 15 have a 'Strong Buy' rating, two have a 'Moderate Buy' rating, and three have a 'Hold' rating.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Evercore ISI remains bullish on Dell after annual user conference
-- Evercore ISI reiterated its bullish stance on Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL) following the company's annual user conference, 'Dell World,' highlighting the company's growing momentum in enterprise artificial intelligence. 'We continue to believe that DELL is well positioned to benefit from the acceleration of enterprise Gen AI adoption,' Evercore ISI wrote in a note recapping Day 1 of the Las Vegas event. The firm maintained its Outperform rating on the stock, citing Dell's comprehensive AI portfolio and technical expertise. CEO Michael Dell kicked off the conference with a keynote that introduced several new products, including Blackwell- and AMD-powered AI servers, a revamped AI PC lineup, and new networking and managed AI service offerings. According to Evercore ISI, the keynote focused on the growing trend of enterprises shifting AI workloads on-premise, as 'DELL expects 85% of enterprises expect to move Gen AI workloads on-prem in the next 24 months due to better costs with on-prem inferencing compared to on public clouds.' The firm noted that Dell's experience designing next-generation AI systems for service providers and model builders has positioned it to now serve enterprise clients effectively. This 'has given the company invaluable technical expertise that it can bring over to the enterprise level,' the firm said. Among new products highlighted was the Dell Pro Max Plus, described as 'the first mobile-workstation with an enterprise-grade NPU,' enabling edge inferencing in a laptop form. On the infrastructure side, Dell introduced servers featuring Nvidia's B300 and GB300 chips for improved AI inference performance. 'With today's announcements, we think DELL can be an enterprise customer's 'one-stop shop' for all its AI infrastructure needs through the lifecycle,' Evercore ISI concluded. Related articles Evercore ISI remains bullish on Dell after annual user conference BYD shares soar to record high; Citi hikes PT on export strength Ford to share US battery plant with Nissan amid further EV pullback – WSJ Sign in to access your portfolio
Globe and Mail
20-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Dell and Nvidia (NVDA) Team Up to Launch Faster AI Servers and New AI Laptop
Tech company Dell Technologies (DELL) has expanded its partnership with chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) in order to launch new AI-focused products that are designed to make artificial intelligence easier and faster for businesses to use. Indeed, at its annual conference, Dell revealed new servers powered by Nvidia's latest Blackwell Ultra chips that can train AI models up to four times faster than previous versions. They come in both air-cooled and liquid-cooled models and can support up to 192 Blackwell chips, or even up to 256 chips if customized. Confident Investing Starts Here: Easily unpack a company's performance with TipRanks' new KPI Data for smart investment decisions Receive undervalued, market resilient stocks straight to you inbox with TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter Dell also introduced the Dell AI Factory with Nvidia, which is a platform that is meant to help businesses manage the entire AI process, from building and training models to using them. Dell CEO Michael Dell said that the goal is to bring AI to more people and make it easier to use. Separately, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang added that these 'AI factories' are key to powering industries like healthcare, finance, and manufacturing, and that Dell now offers one of the widest selections of AI systems. In addition to servers, Dell launched a new 'Pro Max Plus' laptop designed for AI development. It includes a neural processing unit that lets engineers run large AI models directly on the laptop without needing cloud access. Dell also plans to support Nvidia's future Vera Rubin chips, which will replace the current Grace CPUs. While demand for AI servers is strong, Dell and others like Super Micro (SMCI) have seen pressure on profits because of high costs and global economic uncertainty. As a result, to keep profits steady, Dell will focus more on selling networking and storage products alongside its AI systems. Which AI Stock Is the Better Buy? Turning to Wall Street, out of the two stocks mentioned above, analysts think that NVDA stock has more room to run than DELL. In fact, NVDA's price target of $164.51 per share implies almost 22% upside versus DELL's 14.8%.
