Shares of Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL) soared about 33% on Friday, marking the stock’s best day ever after the computer and server maker reported its fiscal first quarter of 2027 (the period ended May 1, 2026).
The move did more than reward Dell’s shareholders
It lit up a swath of stocks tied to artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, from server makers to enterprise software. For more than a year, the best way to bet on the AI build-out was to own the chipmakers. Friday was a reminder that the money flowing to those chips has to land somewhere: in the servers that house them and the software that puts all that compute to work.
Here’s a look at three companies riding that broadening. Dell Technologies Dell’s fiscal first-quarter revenue jumped 88% year over year to a record $43.8 billion — its fastest growth since the company returned to public markets in 2018, and a sharp acceleration from 39% in the prior quarter. The driver was AI-optimized servers, where revenue surged 757% to $16.1 billion.