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Michael Saul Dell (born February 23, 1965) is an American billionaire businessman and investor. He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of
Dell Technologies Dell Technologies Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Round Rock, Texas. It was formed as a result of the September 2016 merger of Dell and EMC Corporation. Dell Technologies ranked 48th on the 2024 Fortune ...
, one of the world's largest
technology Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...
infrastructure companies. As of May 2025, according to '' Bloomberg Billionaires Index'', he is the 14th-richest person in the world with a
net worth Net worth is the value of all the non-financial and financial assets owned by an individual or institution minus the value of all its outstanding liabilities. Financial assets minus outstanding liabilities equal net financial assets, so net w ...
of $125 billion. As of October 2023, according to ''Forbes'', approximately $50 billion of his net worth was derived from his 50% stake in Dell and 40% stake in VMware, with the rest being held by his family office DFO Management. In January 2013, it was announced that he had bid to take Dell Inc. private for $24.4 billion in the biggest
management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management- and/or leveraged buyouts became noted phenomena of 19 ...
since the
Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.
. Dell Inc. officially went private in October 2013. The company once again went public in December 2018.


Early life and education

Dell was born in 1965 in
Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
to a
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family. His parents were Lorraine Charlotte (née Langfan), a
stockbroker A stockbroker is an individual or company that buys and sells stocks and other investments for a financial market participant in return for a commission, markup, or fee. In most countries they are regulated as a broker or broker-dealer and ...
, and Alexander Dell, an orthodontist. Michael attended Herod Elementary School in Houston. In a bid to enter business early, he applied to take a high school equivalency exam at age eight. In his early teens, he invested his earnings from part-time jobs in
stock Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...
s and
precious metal Precious metals are rare, naturally occurring metallic chemical elements of high Value (economics), economic value. Precious metals, particularly the noble metals, are more corrosion resistant and less reactivity (chemistry), chemically reac ...
s. Dell attended Memorial High School in Houston, selling subscriptions to the ''
Houston Post The ''Houston Post'' was a newspaper that had its headquarters in Houston, Texas, United States. In 1995, the newspaper shut down, and its assets were purchased by the ''Houston Chronicle''. History Gail Borden Johnson founded the ''Houston P ...
'' in the summer. Dell's parents wanted him to be a doctor and in order to please them, he took up pre-med at the
University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...
in 1983. Dell continued learning to target specific populations for newspaper subscriptions rather than just making cold calls. He discovered that people who were most likely to get a subscription were newlyweds and people moving to a new home. After collecting the contact information of this population from public records, he sent direct mail appeals and earned $18,000 in one year. He hired several employees, and after earning a gross profit of nearly $200,000 in his first year of business, Dell dropped out of the University of Texas at age 19.


Business career

While a freshman pre-med student at the
University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...
, Dell started an informal business putting together and selling upgrade kits for personal computers in Room 2713 of the Dobie Center residential building. He then applied for a vendor license to bid on contracts for the State of Texas, winning bids by not having the overhead of a computer store. In January 1984, Dell recognized that selling PCs directly to consumers could cut costs compared to traditional retail. He registered his company as "PC's Limited" and began operating from a
condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership regime in which a building (or group of buildings) is divided into multiple units that are either each separately owned, or owned in common with exclusive rights of occupation by individual own ...
, selling between $50,000 and $80,000 worth of PC upgrades, kids, and add-on components. Dell's strategy was to manufacture computers after receiving orders. In May, Dell incorporated the company as "Dell Computer Corporation" and relocated to a business center in North Austin. The company employed a few people as order takers, a few more to fill the orders, and, as Dell recalled, a manufacturing staff consisting of "three guys with screwdrivers sitting at six-foot tables". The venture's capitalization cost was $1,000. During the formative years of Dell Computer, Dell was mentored by Morton Meyerson. In 1992, aged 27, he became the youngest CEO of a company ranked in ''
Fortune Fortune may refer to: General * Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck * Luck * Wealth * Fate * Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling * Fortune, in a fortune cookie Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Fortune'' (19 ...
'' magazine's list of the top 500 corporations. In 1996, Dell started selling computers over the Web, the same year his company launched its first servers. By March 1997, Dell Inc. reported about $1 million in sales per day from dell.com. In the first quarter of 2001, Dell Inc. reached a world market share of 12.8 percent, surpassing
Compaq Compaq Computer Corporation was an American information technology, information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced some of the first IBM PC compati ...
to become the world's largest PC maker. The metric marked the first time the rankings had shifted over the previous seven years. The company's combined shipments of desktops, notebooks and servers grew 34.3 percent worldwide and 30.7 percent in the United States at a time when competitors' sales were shrinking. On March 4, 2004, Dell stepped down as CEO, but stayed as chairman of Dell Inc.'s board, while
Kevin Rollins Kevin Barney Rollins (born November 15, 1952) is an American businessman and philanthropist. The former President and CEO of Dell Inc., in 2006 Rollins was named by London's ''CBR'' as the 9th Most Influential person in the Enterprise IT sector. ...
, then president and COO, became president and CEO. On January 31, 2007, Dell returned as CEO at the request of the board, succeeding Rollins. In 2013, Michael Dell with the help of Silver Lake Partners, Microsoft, and a consortium of lenders took Dell, Inc. private. The deal was reportedly worth $25 billion and faced difficulties during its execution. Notable resistance came from
Carl Icahn Carl Celian Icahn (; born February 16, 1936) is an American businessman and investor. He is the founder and controlling shareholder of Icahn Enterprises, a public company and diversified conglomerate holding company based in Sunny Isles Beach, ...
, but after several months he stepped aside. Michael Dell received a 75% stake in the company. On October 12, 2015, Dell Inc. announced its intent to acquire the enterprise software and storage company
EMC Corporation EMC Corporation (stylized as EMC²) was an American multinational corporation headquartered in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, which sold data storage device, data storage, information security, virtualization, analytics, cloud computing and other pro ...
. At $67 billion, it has been labeled the "highest-valued tech acquisition in history". The acquisition was finalized September 7, 2016. In May 2024, Dell announced a partnership with Nvidia and ServiceNow to develop "AI factories", aiming to provide scalable AI infrastructure solutions to enterprise clients.


Penalty

In July 2010, Dell Inc. agreed to pay a $100 million penalty to settle SEC charges of disclosure and accounting fraud in relation to undisclosed payments from
Intel Corporation Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer components such as central processing ...
. Michael Dell and former CEO Kevin Rollins agreed to pay $4 million each and former CFO James Schneider agreed to pay $3 million to settle the charges.


Accolades

Accolades for Dell include "Entrepreneur of the Year" (at age 24) from '' Inc.'' magazine; "Top CEO in American Business" from '' Worth'' magazine; "CEO of the Year" from '' Financial World'', '' IndustryWeek'' and ''
Chief Executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...
'' magazines. Dell also received the 1998 Golden Plate Award of the
American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a nonprofit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest-achieving people in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet one ano ...
and the 2013
Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and a center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and wikt:statesman, statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin ...
's Bower Award for Business Leadership.


Affiliations

Dell serves on the Foundation Board of the
World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...
, the executive committee of the International Business Council, the U.S. Business Council. He previously served as a member of the U.S. President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. In April 2020, Governor
Greg Abbott Gregory Wayne Abbott ( ; born November 13, 1957) is an American politician, attorney, and jurist who has served since 2015 as the 48th governor of Texas. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served from 2002 to ...
named Dell to the Strike Force to Open Texas – a group "tasked with finding safe and effective ways to slowly reopen the state" during the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. He also serves as an advisor on the COVID-19 Technology Task Force, a technology industry coalition founded in March 2020 collaborating on solutions to respond to and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.


Writings

Dell's 1999 book, ''Direct from Dell: Strategies That Revolutionized an Industry'' (by HarperBusiness), is an account of his early life, his company's founding, growth and missteps, as well as lessons learned. The book was written in collaboration with Catherine Fredman. Dell's second book, ''Play Nice But Win: A CEO's Journey from Founder to Leader'' (by Portfolio), is a story of inside battles that defined him as a leader. The book was written in collaboration with James Kaplan.


Personal life

Dell married Susan Lieberman on October 28, 1989, in
Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...
; the couple reside there with their four children.


Wealth and philanthropy

In 1998, Dell founded MSD Capital L.P., later renamed DFO Management, to manage his family's investments. Michael and Susan Dell established the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation in 1999, which focuses on causes related to health and education.


References


Further reading

* * Koehn, Nancy F. ''Brand New: How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers' Trust from Wedgwood to Dell'' (2001) pp 257–306. * Magretta, Joan. "The power of virtual integration: An interview with Dell Computer's Michael Dell." ''Harvard Business Review'' (1998): pp-73+
online


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dell, Michael 1965 births Living people 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople 21st-century American Jews American billionaires American business writers American chairpersons of corporations American chief executives of Fortune 500 companies American chief executives of manufacturing companies American commodities traders American computer businesspeople American financial company founders American financiers American investors American male non-fiction writers American nonprofit businesspeople American people of German-Jewish descent American philanthropists American political fundraisers American stock traders American technology chief executives American technology company founders American technology writers Businesspeople from Austin, Texas Businesspeople from Houston Businesspeople in electronics Dell people Jewish American non-fiction writers Memorial High School (Hedwig Village, Texas) alumni Private equity and venture capital investors Texas Republicans University of Texas at Austin alumni Writers from Houston Benjamin Franklin Medal (Franklin Institute) laureates Proprietary technology salespersons