Dell Earnings Up 10 Percent, No Thanks to PC Sales

Dell reported that it earned a net income of $1.1 billion on revenues of $24.3 billion in the quarter ending November 1, 2024. Those figures represent gains of 12 percent and 10 percent year-over-year (YOY), respectively. But the gains had nothing to do with PC sales, which were basically flat YOY.

“AI is a robust opportunity for us with no signs of slowing down,” Dell vice chairman and CEO Jeff Clarke said. “Interest in our portfolio is at an all-time high, driving record AI server orders demand of $3.6 billion in Q3 and a pipeline that grew more than 50 percent, with growth across all customer types.”

And that’s the real story here: Dell saw massive growth in its Infrastructure Solutions group, which delivered revenues of $11.4 billion, up 34 percent YOY. The unit also saw revenues from servers and networking grow 58 percent to $7.4 billion. with demand growth across AI and traditional servers. Storage revenue was $4.0 billion, up 4 percent YOY.

But Dell’s Client Solutions Group, which makes PCs, continues struggling along with the rest of the industry. Revenues were $12.1 billion in the quarter, down 1 percent YOY. And Dell saw similar results to HP, with commercial PC revenues up 3 percent to $10.1 billion, while consumer PC revenues fell 18 percent to $2 billion.

Dell noted that it focuses on commercial PCs, workstations, and high-end consumer and gaming PCs, and that it has gained 7 points in the commercial PC market in the past decade. But as with HP, it is still waiting for a PC refresh cycle that keeps getting pushed back. And like HP, it now says that won’t happen until the second half of 2025.