Dell stock has quietly delivered impressive returns to investors so far in 2026, climbing 68% as the company turns into one of the clearest winners of the AI infrastructure boom. Harsh Chauhan said Dell Technologies is emerging as one of the biggest winners of the AI infrastructure boom, and the numbers behind the move help explain why.
Dell Technologies makes AI-optimized servers for data centers, and those machines are packed with accelerator chips, storage, networking and cooling systems built to handle AI workloads. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, ending Jan. 30, 2026, Dell's AI revenue jumped by more than fourfold, and the company booked $34.1 billion in new AI orders. It also closed the previous fiscal year with a $43 billion backlog, a sign that demand is not just strong but still waiting to be fulfilled.
The company expects that momentum to continue. Dell anticipates $50 billion in AI revenue in the current fiscal year, up 103% from the previous year, and it is coming after ABI Research estimated Dell held a fifth of the AI server market in 2024. That market is still growing fast. ABI Research says the AI server market could expand at an annual rate of 18% through 2030 and reach $524 billion in yearly revenue by the end of the decade.
The broader spending outlook is even larger. Goldman Sachs estimates total AI infrastructure outlay could rise from $765 billion in 2026 to $1.6 trillion in 2031, a backdrop that keeps Dell's server business in the center of the spending cycle. Chauhan said Dell's AI servers are in tremendous demand, and the market has given the stock room to run because the company is selling into the part of tech spending that is still accelerating rather than cooling.
The tension is valuation. Dell trades at 24 times earnings, with a forward multiple of 16, well below the Nasdaq-100's 34. That gap suggests investors are paying up for growth, but not as aggressively as they are for the broader tech market. For now, Dell's rise looks anchored less in hope than in orders, backlog and a business that is already feeding on the AI buildout.
