Dell Boosts Forecast on Strong AI Server Demand

Okay, so get this, Dell, you know the computer folks, just upped their game! They're saying they'll make more money this year, which is pretty cool, right? Seems like their special servers, the ones that are all hyped up with Nvidia's fancy chips for AI stuff, are flying off the shelves. I mean, even big shots like Elon Musk's AI company and CoreWeave are using them. Their stock even went up a little bit after they shared the news.

Now, Dell and another company called Super Micro Computer are doing pretty well with these AI servers. But, and here's the thing, making them costs a lot, and there are tons of other companies trying to sell similar stuff, which makes things a bit tricky for how much profit they can make. Dell's main operations guy, Jeff Clarke, said they got a whopping $12.1 billion in AI orders just this past quarter! That's more than they shipped in the whole of last year! They've got a ton of orders to fill, like $14.4 billion worth.

And get this, the U.S. government's energy department just announced they're getting a new supercomputer, and it's gonna use Dell and Nvidia tech! It's called Doudna, which is a pretty cool name, idk. This thing will do some seriously complex computing tasks.

So, because of all this, Dell now thinks they'll make around $9.40 per share this year, which is a bit more than the $9.30 they thought before. They're still sticking to their plan for how much money they'll bring in overall this year. They're even saying they expect to make between $28.5 billion and $29.5 billion next quarter, which is way higher than what the money experts thought they'd make. Their profit guess for next quarter was also higher than expected. They did bring in more money than predicted in the first quarter, but their profit per share wasn't quite as high as some folks thought it would be.

Someone who watches the stock market, Shreya Gheewala, mentioned that Dell might face some pressure on profits in the short term because of other companies lowering prices, some trade fees, and where they're selling things. Dell's business that handles servers and stuff went up by 12%, and their computer business for regular folks went up by 5%. Apparently, people aren't buying new computers as fast as they used to, but it looks like folks are starting to move to those newer computers with Windows 11, including the ones with AI built in. So, maybe that's a good sign? What do you think this means for the future of computers?