Dell surges 9% on optimism it has secured big AI server orders

Dell shares rose more than 9% on Wednesday to an all-time high after Morgan Stanley raised its price target and predicted that the company would rake in sales from the insatiable demand for artificial intelligence servers.

Dell is seeing accelerating momentum, especially in winning business to build AI servers, unlocking a new bull case for the stock, Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring wrote in a note on Wednesday. He upgraded his price target on Dell from $128 per share to $152 a share and called it a top pick.

"All-in, we are hearing about more AI server momentum at Dell than at any other OEM," Woodring wrote, saying that he expected about $10 billion of AI server revenue in the company's fiscal 2025 — ending next February.

Wednesday's move was the largest since March 1, when the stock surged after earnings showed that the computer manufacturer has benefited from the AI boom.

Dell shares are now up over 95% in 2024, trailing the 220% gain from rival AI servermaker Super Micro Computer but surpassing Hewlett Packard Enterprise's 5% gains this year.

Most AI servers are built around Nvidia's chips, which have become prized in the technology industry because they are used to deploy advanced AI models from companies like Google, OpenAI and Meta. Dell sells servers using the newest Nvidia AI chips, including its H100 GPU and the latest Blackwell-generation chips.

At Nvidia's annual conference in March, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang appeared to send customers who want the latest AI chips to Dell for orders.

"You're going to need an AI factory," Huang said. "And nobody is better at building end-to-end systems of very large scale for the enterprise than Dell."

"Michael [Dell] is here and he's happy to take your order," Huang continued.

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