DELL Technologies reported worse-than-expected sales after a budding revival in the personal computer (PC) market stalled out.
Fiscal third-quarter revenue increased 10 per cent to US$24.4 billion. Analysts, on average, estimated US$24.6 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Dell’s personal computer business declined 1 per cent to US$12.1 billion, falling short of estimates.
The PC market had seen a historic decline in recent years after a burst of demand for new laptops in the early months of the pandemic when students and corporate employees were stuck at home. While signs of a rebound began to materialise this year, shipments again dipped in the third quarter, industry analyst IDC said in October.
Dell is best known for its computer business, but the Round Rock, Texas-based company has enjoyed a renaissance of investor interest due to its high-powered servers for artificial intelligence (AI) workloads. Earlier this month, Dell announced it was shipping servers with Nvidia’s new Blackwell semiconductors to cloud infrastructure provider CoreWeave.
Sales in the infrastructure unit including servers rose 34 per cent to US$11.4 billion in the period ended Nov 1, the company said on Tuesday (Nov 26). That’s just ahead of the US$11.3 billion anticipated by analysts. Dell shipped US$2.9 billion in AI-optimised servers in the quarter, according to remarks prepared for the company’s earnings call. That topped analysts’ average estimate of US$2.8 billion.
“AI is a robust opportunity for us with no signs of slowing down,” chief operating officer Jeff Clarke said. He touted orders of AI servers in the quarter hitting US$3.6 billion and growth “across all customer types”.
The shares dropped about 5 per cent in extended trading after closing at US$141.74 in New York. The stock has gained 85 per cent this year largely due to its new AI server business line. Investors’ expectations for Dell were high heading into earnings, wrote Erik Woodring, an analyst at Morgan Stanley. BLOOMBERG
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