At CES 2026, Dell Technologies revived its XPS premium laptops, broadened the Alienware gaming lineup, and launched new UltraSharp monitors aimed at professionals, while also candidly admitting its earlier AI‑PC marketing push had confused rather than attracted consumers.
This mix of headline product launches and a public reset of AI messaging highlights how critical clear positioning is for Dell’s attempt to rebuild its consumer and gaming identity alongside its enterprise AI strengths.
We’ll now examine how Dell’s CES reboot of XPS and Alienware, paired with its AI messaging reset, may influence its investment narrative.
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To own Dell Technologies, I think you have to believe that its AI infrastructure momentum can outweigh the cyclical and margin pressure in PCs and legacy hardware. The CES admission that AI PC messaging misfired looks more sentiment related than a change to the core near term catalyst, which is still execution on the large AI server backlog and associated earnings. The biggest current risk, in my view, remains margin pressure as hardware competition and mix shift toward lower rate AI server revenue continue.
Against that backdrop, the most relevant recent announcement is Dell’s disclosure that growth in AI server revenue is rate dilutive, with low incremental conversion margins of about 2 to 2.5 percent. It directly frames how investors might weigh the strong AI order book against the risk that expanding AI shipments do not fully compensate for margin compression in PCs, storage and traditional servers, especially if consumer and commercial demand stay uneven.
Yet while the product story at CES sounds encouraging, investors should be aware that margin dilution from AI servers and ongoing hardware commoditization could…
Read the full narrative on Dell Technologies (it’s free!)
Dell Technologies’ narrative projects $122.2 billion revenue and $7.4 billion earnings by 2028. This requires 6.4% yearly revenue growth and about a $2.6 billion earnings increase from $4.8 billion today.
Uncover how Dell Technologies’ forecasts yield a $163.30 fair value, a 35% upside to its current price.
DELL 1-Year Stock Price Chart
Eighteen members of the Simply Wall St Community currently see Dell’s fair value between US$112 and US$221 per share, highlighting very different expectations. When you set that against concerns about margin dilution from fast growing AI server revenues, it becomes even more important to weigh several viewpoints before forming an opinion on Dell’s longer term performance.
Explore 18 other fair value estimates on Dell Technologies – why the stock might be worth 7% less than the current price!
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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Companies discussed in this article include DELL.
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