A 342% explosion in AI server sales propelled Dell Technologies to its strongest single-day stock gain in two years, with shares surging more than 20% after the company shattered earnings expectations and projected a $50 billion artificial intelligence revenue target for next year.
Dell closed trading on February 27 up approximately 21.9% at around $148, marking one of the stock's strongest single-day advances since March 2024. Volume exceeded 18 million shares, more than double the average daily trading activity.
The Texas-based company reported fourth-quarter revenue of $33.38 billion, a 39% increase from the prior year that comfortably topped analyst estimates of about $31.7 billion. Adjusted earnings per share reached $3.89, beating forecasts of $3.53 and representing a 45% year-over-year jump.
AI-optimized server revenue hit a record $9 billion for the quarter, a staggering 342% increase, while traditional servers and networking grew 27% to $5.9 billion. The Infrastructure Solutions Group, which includes servers and storage, led the charge with revenue of $19.6 billion, up 73% year over year.
Full-year fiscal 2026 results showed Dell generated $113.5 billion in revenue, up 19%, with adjusted earnings per share increasing 27% to $10.30. The company shipped more than $25 billion in AI servers throughout the year and closed over $64 billion in AI-optimized server orders.
Dell enters fiscal 2027 with a record backlog of $43 billion for its artificial intelligence infrastructure products, supported by a customer base exceeding 4,000 companies including cloud providers and sovereign entities.
For the coming fiscal year ending in January 2027, Dell projects adjusted earnings of about $12.90 per share at the midpoint and revenue between $138 billion and $142 billion, both materially above analyst expectations of $11.56 per share and $126.3 billion. The company expects sales of its AI-optimized servers to more than double to approximately $50 billion next year.
Underscoring what Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke described as major growth for the business.
Dell also announced shareholder-friendly moves including a 20% dividend increase and authorization of an additional \$10 billion for its share-repurchase program. The company returned \$7.5 billion to shareholders through buybacks and dividends during fiscal 2026.
The performance comes amid what industry analysts describe as a historic memory shortage that's putting pressure on prices across the sector, with memory chip makers prioritizing high-bandwidth memory needed for AI chips from companies including Nvidia.
