The world’s richest entrepreneurs have watched their net worths skyrocket and plummet at the whim of the stock market. And Michael Dell, the founder and CEO of pioneering tech company Dell Technologies, has just seen his wealth double thanks to the AI boom.
The 61-year-old—who owns 40% of his tech company—has gained around $122 billion since this time in 2025, nearly doubling his wealth to a whopping $262 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Other tech players haven’t even touched that level of growth. Larry Page’s net worth has grown $16.3 billion in the past year, while Jeff Bezos has seen his wealth surge $24.5 billion. Mark Zuckerberg has lost $3.3 billion.
Now, Dell is the fifth richest man in the world, with some outlets like Forbes even ranking him at number two on the world billionaire’s list. And the tech founder’s wealth surge largely comes from his legacy business unexpectedly rising as an AI frontrunner.
Fortune reached out to Dell for comment.
Dell Technologies—the company Michael Dell founded at just 19—has become an AI powerhouse
Some have speculated whether a legacy tech company like Dell could stay relevant in the AI era. But its rapid growth in AI infrastructure has proven those doubts wrong.
Dell was founded back in 1984, while Dell was a 19-year-old student studying at the University of Texas at Austin. Starting out with just $1,000 in starting capital, the tech pioneer decided to drop out of college to pursue his vision of putting computers directly in the hands of users. Dell built its reputation in rolling out PCs and laptops, especially through its early direct-to-consumer, build-to-order model.
And in the decades since, it’s become an industry titan; its PowerEdge servers hold a major presence in corporate and cloud data centers, while the company has expanded beyond PCs into enterprise infrastructure and services.
“We started out as a company upgrading IBM personal computers, and then we started designing our own computers, and since then we’ve evolved to become the largest IT infrastructure company in the world,” Dell told the Wall Street Journal in 2024.
What started out as a personal computer-maker business has since expanded into a go-to hardware provider for AI. And as demand for AI-optimized server racks and data storage infrastructure has skyrocketed, Dell has seen its business surge to new heights.
Dell just recorded revenue of $47 billion
Since the start of this year, its shares have risen by 327%, and in the latest quarter, the company reported record revenue of $47 billion. And during its Q1 fiscal 2027 financial results earlier this year, Dell reported better-than-expected quarterly adjusted earnings, which has more than tripled from the year before as AI-optimized server revenue rocketed 757% to $16.1 billion. That helped Dell shoot past Zuckerberg on the Bloomberg billionaires list.
With a 40% stake in his company, Dell has seen the value of his holdings soar alongside the stock.
Just last week, his net worth jumped $17.2 billion overnight as Dell shares surged.
His fortune has also swelled thanks to gains from his private investment firm DFO Management—which manages his wealth and capital—and invests in public stocks, private companies, real estate, and liquid corporate credit.
