Dell’s CFO David Kennedy reported strong fiscal growth driven by broad-based AI demand, raising the full-year revenue outlook to $167 billion, with significant contributions from AI servers and infrastructure products. The company emphasized diversified growth across multiple sectors and government contracts, highlighting a strategic shift towards AI and infrastructure solutions while excluding the PC business from the discussion.
Dell’s CFO, David Kennedy, highlighted a strong start to the fiscal year with significant growth driven by AI demand. The company raised its full-year revenue outlook to $167 billion, a nearly 50% increase year-over-year, with $60 billion attributed to AI servers. This represents a $27 billion increase in the revenue guide, reflecting robust demand across Dell’s infrastructure products. The quarter saw 88% revenue growth and 214% earnings per share (EPS) growth, supported by record cash flows and accelerating global infrastructure needs.
Kennedy emphasized that the growth is broad-based rather than reliant on a single hyperscale customer or sector. Dell’s Client Solutions Group (CSG) grew 17% in the first quarter, with traditional server and networking businesses up 92%. The company expects continued strong performance across AI storage and server segments throughout the year. This broad demand extends beyond GPUs, encompassing a wide range of products and verticals, indicating a durable and expanding market opportunity.
Regarding government contracts, Kennedy addressed the recently announced $9.7 billion defense deal, clarifying that it is part of Dell’s ongoing software and technology support to federal agencies. While significant, this contract represents a relatively small portion of the overall revenue outlook and is spread over five years. Dell’s relationships with government and enterprise customers remain strong, contributing to a diverse and stable revenue base.
Kennedy also discussed the sustainability of AI-driven demand, noting that it goes beyond just AI servers to include the entire solution and infrastructure stack. The shift from AI training models to inferencing workloads is creating new opportunities and expanding the market. This transition is expected to provide durable, long-term growth as Dell continues to support evolving customer needs across various industries and geographies.
Finally, Kennedy reiterated that no single customer or sector is driving the recent growth surge. Instead, Dell is seeing broad-based expansion across multiple verticals, including neo cloud, sovereign, and enterprise customers. The company’s extensive pipeline and diverse customer base underpin its optimistic outlook. Notably, the conversation focused entirely on infrastructure and AI-related growth, with no mention of the PC business, highlighting the strategic shift in Dell’s revenue drivers. Following the earnings call, Dell’s shares rose more than 29% in after-hours trading.