DELL · Forward model · Bull case
The Bull case, 20 quarters out
Model as of
Each segment is projected from its own operating driver, rolled up into consolidated cash flow, and discounted back to a fair value per share. The assumptions below are editable — change them and every number on this page moves with them.
Quarters are labelled the way Dell labels them: fiscal, running a year ahead of the calendar, so 2027 Q1 is the quarter ended 1 May 2026. The six verticals are the six revenue lines Dell itself publishes, and they sum to reported consolidated revenue with zero difference: 16,132 AI-optimized servers + 8,543 traditional servers and networking + 4,334 storage + 13,020 CSG Commercial + 1,589 CSG Consumer + 224 Corporate and other = $43,842M. Nothing is apportioned. Two boundaries are hard. First, Dell only disaggregated servers and networking into AI-optimized and traditional 'effective in the fourth quarter of Fiscal 2026', so those two lines carry two quarters of history here rather than nine; their FY2026 Q2 and Q3 values are individually undisclosed and the model refuses to interpolate a split the company never published, which is why consolidated history starts at 2026 Q4. Second, Dell reports operating income for ISG and CSG only, never by product line, and the release states the CODM does not evaluate depreciation by segment. Every vertical margin here is therefore the SEGMENT margin applied uniformly across that segment's lines plus consolidated D&A intensity, and it is an assumption, not a disclosure. There is no honest AI-server-only margin to be had, which is why no scenario moves one ISG line's margin without moving the others. Where this model disagrees with Dell: the FY2027 guide of $167B, set against $43,842M reported and $44.5B guided for Q2, implies about $78.7B across the second half, an average of $39.3B a quarter - a 12% sequential fall from the Q2 guide with no operational reason given for it. This model meets the Q2 guide at $43.9B and then decays smoothly, so it lands FY2027 at about $176B, roughly 5% above the guided midpoint and 4% above the top of the guided range. The overshoot is entirely in the second half; every first-projected-quarter rate here ties to a disclosed segment guide (ISG roughly 75% growth, CSG roughly 20%, AI-optimized servers $15.5B) and each of them lands slightly BELOW what that guide implies. The gap is stated rather than tuned away. Net cash is negative $5,122M: core debt of $16.7B less $11,578M of cash. The other $14.7B of debt is DFS non-recourse borrowing matched by $13,950M of financing receivables and is deliberately excluded from enterprise value.
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Latest: $65.79B (2032Q1E)
| Period | Value |
|---|---|
| 2026Q4 | $33.38B |
| 2027Q1 | $43.84B |
| 2027Q2E | $44.55B |
| 2027Q3E | $45.30B |
| 2027Q4E | $46.10B |
| 2028Q1E | $46.94B |
| 2028Q2E | $47.82B |
| 2028Q3E | $48.73B |
| 2028Q4E | $49.68B |
| 2029Q1E | $50.67B |
| 2029Q2E | $51.70B |
| 2029Q3E | $52.77B |
| 2029Q4E | $53.88B |
| 2030Q1E | $55.03B |
| 2030Q2E | $56.22B |
| 2030Q3E | $57.46B |
| 2030Q4E | $58.73B |
| 2031Q1E | $60.05B |
| 2031Q2E | $61.42B |
| 2031Q3E | $62.83B |
| 2031Q4E | $64.29B |
| 2032Q1E | $65.79B |
Where each case comes from
Clarke case — primary sources
The primary sources this case is built from — filings, calls and posts. Where they are claims by an interested party rather than disclosures, every number in the Clarke column is what happens if they are taken at face value.
The arrangements are multi-year, and the horizon is five
- May 28, 2026 Customers are pursuing multi-year supply arrangements with Dell, with discussions extending up to five years in duration.
- May 28, 2026 We exited the quarter with a record $51.3 billion of AI backlog. Our pipeline continued to grow sequentially and remains multiples of our backlog, even after converting $24.4 billion into orders.
What the book and the customer base look like underneath it
From cash flow to fair value
The published model, discounted at 11.0% a year with an exit multiple of 1.3x on revenue. The sliders above do not change this walk.
| Present value of free cash flow, 20 quarters | $59.35B |
| Terminal-year revenue | $254.33B |
| Terminal-year EBITDA | $27.66B |
| Exit multiple, on revenue | 1.3x |
| Terminal value | $330.62B |
| Discounted at 11.0% a year, terminal value becomes | $196.21B |
| Share of enterprise value from the terminal | 77% |
| Enterprise value | $255.56B |
| Net cash | −$5.12B |
| Equity value | $250.44B |
| Shares | 0.66B |
| Fair value per share | $381.77 |
| Against the deployed price of $506.62, as of | −25% |
0.9x exit EV/revenue on a terminal year running roughly an 11% EBITDA margin is about 8x EBITDA, which is where a hardware assembler belongs once the AI mix is normal. Dell trades at about 1.85x its own FY2027 revenue guidance today ($309B enterprise value on $167B) and 25.9x guided non-GAAP EPS of $17.90, so 0.9x is deliberately a de-rating of more than half. The terminal business in this model is one whose AI mix is no longer growing 757% and whose gross margin has been reset to the high teens. Dell earns more than the 0.4x this site uses for SMCI for three disclosed reasons: a storage business with nine quarters of stable revenue, a commercial PC franchise printing 8.0% segment margins, and Dell Financial Services. Move this slider before any operating input - between 0.6x and 1.3x the answer moves further than every margin assumption on this page combined. The 12% discount rate sits above Vertiv's 11% for component and customer risk and below SMCI's 13% because Dell has scale, services and DFS. What the enterprise value does NOT include: $14.7B of DFS non-recourse debt, which is matched by $13,950M of financing receivables and is not Dell's leverage.
Read the other way round: at $506.62 the market is paying 1.8x terminal-year revenue, holding every other assumption on this page fixed. That is the number to argue about.
The projected path
| Quarter | AI-optimized servers | Traditional servers and networking | Storage | CSG Commercial | CSG Consumer | Corporate and other | Revenue | YoY | EBITDA | Capex | FCF | R40 | PV of FCF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2027 Q2E | $15.85B | $9.17B | $4.45B | $13.25B | $1.62B | $208M | $44.55B | — | $5.10B | $977M | $3.38B | — | $3.29B |
| 2027 Q3E | $15.66B | $9.76B | $4.57B | $13.48B | $1.64B | $194M | $45.30B | — | $5.15B | $993M | $3.41B | — | $3.24B |
| 2027 Q4E | $15.53B | $10.31B | $4.69B | $13.72B | $1.67B | $183M | $46.10B | +38% | $5.21B | $1.01B | $3.45B | +46 | $3.19B |
| 2028 Q1E | $15.47B | $10.84B | $4.80B | $13.96B | $1.69B | $174M | $46.94B | +7% | $5.28B | $1.03B | $3.49B | +14 | $3.14B |
| 2028 Q2E | $15.47B | $11.34B | $4.92B | $14.21B | $1.71B | $165M | $47.82B | +7% | $5.36B | $1.05B | $3.53B | +15 | $3.10B |
| 2028 Q3E | $15.52B | $11.82B | $5.04B | $14.45B | $1.74B | $158M | $48.73B | +8% | $5.44B | $1.07B | $3.58B | +15 | $3.06B |
| 2028 Q4E | $15.61B | $12.29B | $5.16B | $14.71B | $1.76B | $152M | $49.68B | +8% | $5.53B | $1.09B | $3.64B | +15 | $3.03B |
| 2029 Q1E | $15.75B | $12.75B | $5.28B | $14.97B | $1.78B | $147M | $50.67B | +8% | $5.62B | $1.11B | $3.69B | +15 | $3.00B |
| 2029 Q2E | $15.93B | $13.20B | $5.40B | $15.23B | $1.81B | $142M | $51.70B | +8% | $5.72B | $1.14B | $3.76B | +15 | $2.97B |
| 2029 Q3E | $16.14B | $13.65B | $5.52B | $15.50B | $1.83B | $138M | $52.77B | +8% | $5.82B | $1.16B | $3.82B | +16 | $2.94B |
| 2029 Q4E | $16.39B | $14.09B | $5.65B | $15.77B | $1.85B | $134M | $53.88B | +8% | $5.93B | $1.18B | $3.89B | +16 | $2.92B |
| 2030 Q1E | $16.66B | $14.54B | $5.78B | $16.05B | $1.88B | $130M | $55.03B | +9% | $6.04B | $1.21B | $3.96B | +16 | $2.90B |
| 2030 Q2E | $16.97B | $14.98B | $5.91B | $16.33B | $1.90B | $127M | $56.22B | +9% | $6.16B | $1.23B | $4.04B | +16 | $2.88B |
| 2030 Q3E | $17.31B | $15.44B | $6.04B | $16.62B | $1.92B | $124M | $57.46B | +9% | $6.28B | $1.26B | $4.12B | +16 | $2.86B |
| 2030 Q4E | $17.68B | $15.89B | $6.18B | $16.91B | $1.95B | $121M | $58.73B | +9% | $6.41B | $1.29B | $4.20B | +16 | $2.84B |
| 2031 Q1E | $18.08B | $16.36B | $6.32B | $17.21B | $1.97B | $118M | $60.05B | +9% | $6.55B | $1.32B | $4.29B | +16 | $2.83B |
| 2031 Q2E | $18.50B | $16.83B | $6.46B | $17.51B | $2.00B | $116M | $61.42B | +9% | $6.69B | $1.35B | $4.38B | +16 | $2.81B |
| 2031 Q3E | $18.95B | $17.32B | $6.61B | $17.82B | $2.02B | $113M | $62.83B | +9% | $6.84B | $1.38B | $4.47B | +16 | $2.80B |
| 2031 Q4E | $19.43B | $17.81B | $6.76B | $18.13B | $2.05B | $111M | $64.29B | +9% | $6.99B | $1.41B | $4.57B | +17 | $2.79B |
| 2032 Q1E | $19.93B | $18.32B | $6.91B | $18.45B | $2.07B | $109M | $65.79B | +10% | $7.15B | $1.45B | $4.67B | +17 | $2.77B |
Every row is projected. A year-over-year change is shown only where the quarter it compares against exists — an em dash means there is no comparable quarter, not a flat year.
Model revisions
Assumptions are marked to reality as each quarter prints. Every change is appended here, with the fair value the model produced at the time, so the model's own history stays visible.
| Date | Fair value then | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-27 | $201.10 | First cut, built on the FY2027 Q1 release, the 10-Q and both call transcripts. Six verticals on Dell's own reported revenue lines, reconciling to $43,842M with zero difference. AI-optimized servers start by DECLINING, on Dell's own Q2 guide. |