Dell founder shows how a $100 billion empire started 42 years ago — CEO says ‘This one page changed my life’
Billionaire Michael Dell reminisced about the early days of his company, sharing an early quarterly earnings report that showed the then-startup making nearly $135,000 in just three months. Dell says that that document changed his life, as it convinced his parents that he no longer needed to go back to college and pursue his degree.
42 years ago, Michael Dell began Dell Technologies Inc. with a single page that altered his life. The document, detailing his company's earnings, convinced his parents he could succeed without further college. In his dorm room at the University of Texas, Dell initially upgraded PCs and created IBM-compatible clones. Within a single quarter, the company sold almost a million dollars worth of goods and generated a net income of $134,762.75, equivalent to $433,150.05 in 2026 dollars.
Dell went public four years after inception but returned to private ownership five years later in a $24.9 billion deal amid competition from smartphones and tablets. In 2013, the company went public again, currently valued at around $261.92 billion. Dell Technologies now encompasses iconic brands like Alienware and XPS, and plays a significant role in AI infrastructure, supplying servers to major data centers.
Despite past controversies, including accounting investigations and security vulnerabilities, the company remains a powerful player in PCs, laptops, gaming, productivity, and enterprise systems.
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