While grey box shifter Dell’s financial results were pants, the company thinks AI, other emerging technologies, and improved macroeconomic trends make for a very strong quarter.
Dell reported a significant year-over-year drop in revenue and GAAP net income along with tiny growth in non-GAAP net income.
While the company’s revenue guidance for the next quarter is for another double-digit decline.
However, talk about Dell’s investment in AI convinced investors the tech giant is moving in the right direction, giving Dell share prices a 7-plus-per cent boost in after-hours trading.
Jeff Clarke, vice chairman and COO for Dell Technologies, said during his prepared remarks that his company had been cautious given its first fiscal quarter results.
“But the demand environment improved at a faster rate than we anticipated, particularly as we moved into June and July,” Clarke said.
“Operationally, we executed well with expense controls, pricing discipline, and lower input costs. We sharpened our focus on pricing this quarter, and we were selective on deals particularly where shared benefits would have been temporary. While revenue was down year-over-year, a better demand environment and strong execution enabled extraordinary Q2 results.”
Dell saw significant strength in AI-enabled servers, as well as in parts of its storage portfolio, particularly with its PowerFlex proprietary software-defined storage technology, which has recorded revenue growth for eight consecutive quarters..
“Workstation demand grew and was another bright spot that will continue to benefit from the rise of AI,” he said. “Developers and data scientists can now fine tune gen AI models locally before deploying them at scale,” he said
