Shares of Dell Technologies soared nearly 12% on Thursday to close at an all-time high, pushing its market value past $360 billion, after Oracle's management singled out the company as a primary beneficiary of its massive AI infrastructure spending plans. The rally also received a boost from RBC Capital Markets, which initiated coverage on the stock with an outperform rating, reigniting investor enthusiasm for AI hardware plays.

The surge came as all three major U.S. indices rebounded, with capital flowing back into AI hardware and semiconductor stocks. Dell, widely viewed as a bellwether for AI compute deployment, led the charge, extending its year-to-date gain to approximately 350%.

Oracle's Earnings Confirm Order Visibility

The catalyst for the move was Oracle's strong quarterly report released after the bell on Tuesday. The cloud giant posted a 121% surge in cloud revenue for its fiscal first quarter, beating expectations, while its remaining performance obligations (RPO) swelled to $664 billion. Management also raised its full-year guidance, underscoring robust demand for AI infrastructure.

During the earnings call, Oracle's management reiterated its capital expenditure plan of $90 billion to $95 billion for fiscal 2027, earmarked for expanding AI data centers, rack deployments, and networking equipment purchases. Crucially, Hilary Maxson, an Oracle executive, made a direct statement that this substantial spending would flow to core suppliers, explicitly naming Dell and HPE as key partners for AI server racks, liquid cooling systems, and associated networking gear. This direct attribution effectively translates Oracle's order pipeline into tangible revenue visibility for its suppliers.

Oracle's massive AI cloud order backlog further confirms that enterprise demand for compute capacity remains in a rapid expansion phase. For Dell, this provides explicit endorsement from a downstream cloud titan, significantly enhancing the certainty of earnings delivery across several upcoming quarters.

RBC Initiates Coverage With Bullish Stance on AI Infrastructure Cycle

RBC Capital Markets published a research note on Thursday, initiating coverage of Dell with an outperform rating. Analyst David Paige noted in the report: "We see no signs of a slowdown and believe Dell will continue to benefit from a multi-year AI infrastructure spending cycle."

Paige highlighted Dell's competitive moat, describing its supply chain as "best-in-class" and noting that it "constitutes a competitive barrier that is particularly prominent during periods of supply disruption, with customers increasingly viewing Dell as a reliable, stable partner amid supply volatility or shortages."

Dell is among the first shippers of Nvidia's Grace Blackwell NVL72 racks, and its deep partnership with Nvidia provides a significant advantage in securing GPU supply. The company's AI server customer base has expanded to over 6,500 clients, spanning emerging cloud service providers (including CoreWeave), sovereign buyers, and large enterprises. Dell added 3,300 new customers over the past three quarters, steadily reducing customer concentration risk.

In its fiscal second-quarter results, Dell reported AI server revenue of $16.4 billion, up 100% year-over-year. The company booked a record $60.9 billion in AI server orders during the quarter, ending with a backlog of $95 billion. Notably, executives noted that rising component costs, including memory, drove price increases, a factor incorporated into the raised full-year guidance. Dell has lifted its annual revenue forecast to $192 billion, representing nearly 70% growth from the prior year.

Beyond fundamentals, Dell's recent inclusion in the S&P 100 index has further elevated its visibility and appeal among institutional investors, adding another layer of support to the stock's remarkable run.