Yahoo Finance flags Dell inventory nearly tripling to $21.3B, raising memory-cost and margin questions ahead of November 24 earnings
What happened
Yahoo Finance reported Tuesday, November 3 that Dell Technologies' inventory had nearly tripled from a year earlier, raising questions about supply conditions and future margins. Dell held $21.3B of inventory at July 31 (end of fiscal Q2), versus $7.2B a year earlier, even as revenue rose 58% to $47B — inventory expanded much faster than sales. Production materials accounted for $15.9B of inventory, up from $4.7B a year earlier. Satori Fund founder Dan Niles told Yahoo Finance the inventory growth suggests semiconductor supply may be closer to demand than current shortage pricing implies. Dell's product gross margin rose to 17.3% in fiscal Q2 from 12.1% a year earlier, making the durability of pricing and input-cost gains a key issue. Separately, Intel warned that memory prices and limited availability are slowing PC demand, forecasting global PC shipments to decline 12% in 2026 and another 10% in 2027. DELL traded up about 3.4% to €366.40 in European trading Tuesday.
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Start your free 14-day trialWho’s affected
- Dell (DELL) — inventory/margin exposure directly affects product profitability; memory/NAND makers and PC-exposed names (Intel, Micron, PC OEMs) via the read-through on component pricing and demand
- AI-server supply chain (Nvidia) via backlog-conversion questions.
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