Dell exploded 255% since Trump told Americans to 'buy a Dell' — and his account held it before a $9.7B Pentagon deal

Dell reported far better than expected earnings on May 28, which sent its stock higher on Friday. Notably, the company’s share price has also more than tripled (up 255%) since Trump's first endorsement on Feb. 19, when he urged Americans to “buy a Dell.” Dell stock closed at $420.91 on Friday, and is one of the best-performing large-cap technology stocks of the year. (2)

A federal ethics disclosure published this month shows that an account in President Donald Trump's name bought up to $5.1 million worth of Dell stock in the first quarter. Trump publicly urged Americans to “buy a Dell” on two separate occasions, before Dell secured a Pentagon deal worth $9.7 billion. (3)

Dell stock jumps 32% as AI server revenue soars 757%

Dell reported earnings after the bell on Thursday, and the numbers blew past what Wall Street expected. Revenue hit $43.8 billion for the quarter, up 88% from a year earlier — analysts had penciled in about $35.7 billion. Adjusted earnings came in at $4.86 a share, against estimates closer to $2.96. (4)

Like many things this year, the driver was artificial intelligence. Dell's AI-optimized server revenue hit $16.1 billion in the quarter, up 757% from a year earlier, and the company said it booked $24.4 billion in AI orders during the period. Management raised its full-year AI server revenue target to $60 billion and lifted its overall revenue outlook to $167 billion. (4)

Analysts were left flabbergasted. Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring wrote that his team “got this one wrong” and put its price target under review, calling it “one of the most impressive quarters we've seen in our time covering Hardware.” (5)

The earnings beat capped a remarkable month for Dell. On May 27, the U.S. Department of War awarded the company a $9.7 billion, five-year contract to consolidate Microsoft software licenses across the military, the intelligence community and the Coast Guard — a deal officials said could save roughly $422 million a year initially. (6)

Trump bought Dell stock before publicly telling Americans to buy it

In May, the Office of Government Ethics released two Form 278-T filings covering Trump's personal financial activity from January through March. The documents — more than 100 pages — list more than 3,700 individual stock transactions, including more than 30 purchases of $1 million or more. The aggregate value falls in a broad band between roughly $220 million and $750 million. (3)

Dell was among them. According to the disclosure, Trump's account bought between $1 million and $5 million of Dell stock, plus smaller purchases, for a maximum of about $5.1 million across the quarter. (3)

Trump endorsed Dell twice. He first told a crowd in Rome, Georgia, on Feb. 19 to "go out and buy a Dell computer." Then, at a White House Mother's Day event on May 8, he said it again: "Go out and buy a Dell. They're great." The stock hit an all-time high that day, up about 14% intraday. (7)

The same filings show purchases of Palantir, Nvidia, Micron and Intel — companies Trump went on to praise publicly or whose fortunes ran through his administration's policy decisions. He bought Palantir at least 10 times, then talked it up on Truth Social. He bought Nvidia shortly before federal authorities cleared certain chip sales to China. (3)

The White House and the Trump Organization say the president does not direct the trades, and that they run through "automated investment processes." Eric Trump has said the family's assets sit in a blind trust, and that any suggestion individual stocks are bought or sold "at the discretion of any member of the Trump family, would be a lie and blatantly false." The filings themselves do not specify who placed the trades. (7)

No charges have been filed, and no insider trading has been proven. But the optics have drawn sharp reactions — CNBC's Jim Cramer went silent on air in May for roughly 10 seconds when a co-host noted Trump had been trading Intel. Social media called it insider trading. Trump has repeatedly accused Nancy Pelosi of profiting from inside information, yet his quarter of trading dwarfs her three-year volume, and he was fined $200 for disclosing some trades late.