Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell (L) speaks during a round-table discussion with US President Donald Trump in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Dec. 10, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Alex Wong | Getty Images
Michael Dell bought President Donald Trump’s second term early. Now his hardware company Dell Technologies is closing in on its best month on Wall Street since returning to the public market in 2018.
Since Trump returned to the White House last year, Michael Dell has attended the president’s Invest America Roundtable event in June 2025. In December, Trump introduced the computer executive and his wife, Susan Dell, as they announced a gift of $6.25 billion for the accounts of 25 million US children. This month, Trump advised Americans to “go out and buy Dell.”
On Wednesday, the company was awarded a $9.7 billion contract by the Pentagon to provide software to the US military. The award came after the Pentagon said it was a competitive process, although the deal is still being questioned by some government experts.
The Pentagon contract, awarded to Dell Federal Systems, which is part of a government-focused company, has raised eyebrows as a possible return for the donation of Trump accounts.
“The short answer looks bad,” said Greg Williams, director of the Center for Defense Information, which is part of the Project on Government Oversight. “Publicly donating to all kinds of presidential projects has created a lot of excitement that they are in the business of soliciting various donations to gain access to the president or outcomes that he can influence.”
The flexibility is a sign of how business wants to invest in the president in his second term, and has moved away from the practices of giving to big business and lobbying businesses in the White House.
“What’s new here is that they don’t provide an intermediary or a non-profit or some kind of long-term institution, which is a way for the community to work,” said Megan Tompkins-Stange, an associate professor at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy. “Instead, they’re donating directly to this program with Trump’s name on it.”
Even before the Pentagon deal, Dell Technologies has been rising in value, and its stock has nearly tripled in the past year. The company is now valued at over $200 billion.
Michael Dell, chairman and CEO, was among the business leaders Trump turned to in 2017 at the start of his first term in office. In 2018, Dell Technologies debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in a reverse merger, five years after Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake took over Dell Inc. privately. Dell expanded in 2016 with the acquisition of data center equipment company EMC.
Trump bought $1 million to $5 million in Dell shares in Feb. 10, according to the government’s ethics file. That day, the stock closed at $126.01. He also bought three other very small stakes of Dell stock in March, according to the filing.
Shares of Dell Technologies began rising in late February, after revenue grew 40% year over year, the fastest pace since the merger. Executives said the so-called neoclouds were buying Dell servers containing graphics processing units to run artificial intelligence models that generate productivity, contributing to a 342% jump in AI server sales. Earnings rose 47%, with higher prices benefiting margins.
Today, 3.6% of Dell’s revenue comes from consumers, with laptops, desktops, monitors and webcams.
On Thursday, Dell announced another quarter of impressive results, with total revenue up nearly 88% and AI server revenue up 757%. The stock rose 39% to $441.56 in extended trading Thursday evening. If Trump holds on to the shares purchased on February 10, he will be sitting on a paper profit of between $1.5 million and $7.5 million.
Excluding Thursday’s after-hours move, Dell shares are up about 179% over the past year, while the S&P 500 has gained 28% over the same period, and the Nasdaq is up about 41%.
Michael Dell founded Dell in 1984. He is the largest shareholder of Dell Technologies, with a stake worth about $6 billion as of Thursday’s close, according to FactSet.
The Dells were notable philanthropists before the Trump Accounts donation, establishing their foundation in 1999 to help children living in poverty with better health care, education and financial opportunities. Michael Dell told CNBC in December that he became interested in investing in children’s investment accounts in 2021 after hearing about the idea of Brad Gerstner of Altimeter Capital, years before the accounts were named after Trump.
While the $6.25 billion donation is in line with the Dells’ philanthropic priorities, it was the largest gift they’ve ever made. The Trump Accounts’ donation was more than double their foundation’s total, a spokesperson for the organization previously told CNBC.
The gift is also a significant departure from the way Dells and other tech giants often support philanthropic causes, according to Tompkins-Stange, who focuses on the role of wealth, power and philanthropy in influencing public policy. The Dells’ donation goes to a formal program, rather than a non-profit organization or other intermediary.
“Traditionally, many technologists tend to want to bypass government programs because they are seen as formal and slow. They prefer to use other methods of influence,” said Tompkins-Stange.
Susan Dell and Michael Dell attend the 12th Annual Mack, Jack & McConaughey Gala at ACL Live on April 25, 2024 in Austin, Texas.
Rick Kern | Getty Images
Many tech philanthropists also like to use metrics to measure the impact of their donations and hold nonprofits accountable, according to Tompkins-Stange. Instead, Dell is offering $6.25 billion on the basis that these investment accounts will grow well over time, he said.
“That’s almost unheard of in tech philanthropy,” he said. “It’s basically investing in a long-term plan where you don’t have measurements. No one is going to check the effect of this money on children every quarter.”
The White House praised Dell and their contribution.
“President Trump’s only interest is to do what is best for the American people, and his praise of Dell is based solely on their patriotic donation of more than $6 billion to Trump accounts for 25 million American children,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in an email.
The Dells have continued to expand their giving, announcing in April a $750 million commitment to Michael Dell’s alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin, for a new medical campus. The latest announcement brought the couple’s philanthropic commitments to more than $10 billion.
When asked why he and his wife made such large gifts in just a few months, Michael Dell told CNBC in April that they had more resources to devote to long-term things.
“The themes we’ve been in are the themes we’ve been living in for decades,” he said in April. “Obviously, the scale has increased as we’ve had more potential for greater impact. It’s probably not much more complicated than that.”
Dell Technologies and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation did not respond to requests for comment on this story,
Michael Dell’s net worth has nearly quadrupled over the past five years to $196 billion, per Bloomberg. Most of his gains came in the last two years thanks to the AI-driven technology rally.
But Dell’s giving to their foundation has not grown in line with their wealth, according to Tompkins-Stange. He also noted that the Trump Accounts donation was made by the Dells, not their foundation.
“This is very consistent and there is no buffer between the donor and the administration. It is very connected with the president in a way we have never seen, and I think it is interesting because there is no longer even a concern about the appearance of impropriety,” he said.
The administration also favors private investment to fund things like the White House ballroom, which the president approved without federal funding or approval. Many major technology companies have contributed to that effort.
