Michael Dell Joins Top 10 Wealthiest After Broadcom Rally

By Pune Media On Dec 16, 2024 35

Topline

Michael Dell, the founder, chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies, added an estimated $14 billion to his valuation between Friday and Monday thanks to a bump in Broadcom stock that made him one of the 10 richest people in the world for the first time.

Michael Dell at SXSW on March 14, 2024 in Austin, Texas.

SXSW Conference & Festivals via Getty Images

Key Facts

Dell was worth $120.3 billion Monday, more than his estimated net worth of $106.3 billion at the end of the day Thursday and $115.4 billion on Friday.

The increase in his wealth puts him at No. 10 on Forbes’ list of billionaires, with a net worth surpassing that of fashion retailer Amancio Ortega ($119.4 billion), Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang ($114.4 billion), Walmart’s Rob and Jim Walton ($113.7 billion and $112.4 billion, respectively) and Bill Gates ($107 billion).

The bump comes after an uptick in Broadcom stock that saw shares rise 24% on Friday—pushing its market cap past $1 trillion for the first time—and another 10% rise on Monday following reports of a 51% year-over-year revenue increase for the fourth quarter.

Dell owns 22.2 million Broadcom shares, which he acquired last year when VMware, which spun off from Dell’s cloud software arm in 2021, sold to the company for $69 billion (a 39% stake went to Dell).

About half of Dell’s VMware shares were converted to Broadcom shares and he received cash for the remaining value of the deal.

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Big Number

$1.05 trillion. That is the market cap of Broadcom, a technology company that develops and produces semiconductor products and infrastructure software, as of Monday afternoon.

Surprising Fact

The highest rank Dell ever reached on the annual Forbes billionaire list was No. 12 in 2006. He was ranked No. 16 in 2024, up from No. 23 in 2023.

Key Background

Dell created his eponymous company as a personal computer sales operation in 1984 and, by 1992, was the youngest ever CEO of a company ranked in Fortune’s top 500 corporations.The Dell Computer Corporation grew into the world’s largest maker of personal computers and in 2016 merged with the EMC Corporation to become Dell Technologies, which was ranked by Forbes as the 165th biggest company in the world in June. Dell Computer first went public in 1988, returned to private ownership in 2013 and was re-listed through a complicated financial restructuring in 2018. VMware spun off from Dell in 2021. Much of Michel Dell’s personal fortune stems from his private investment firm, DFO Management, which has stakes in hotels and invests in liquid corporate credit. DFO Management owns Four Seasons Maui and has indirect stakes in Applebees, IHOP, Calvin Klein and, reportedly, Grand Central Station.

Tangent

Broadcom reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday and said artificial intelligence revenue for the year rose 220% to $12.2 billion. Broadcom makes a wide variety of networking chips—including those designed for AI, cloud computing and Android and iPhone devices—and is set to capitalize on a surge in AI chip sales expected over the next several years. Shares of Broadcom closed up more than 24% Friday—its best trading day on record—and rose 10% more Monday.