Cloudflare vs Dell: Revenue, Profit and Business Model
Cloudflare reported $2.2B of revenue in FY2025 and — of net income. Dell reported $113.5B of revenue in FY2026 and $5.9B of net income.
Latest financial snapshot
Cloudflare
- Latest revenue
- $2.2B (FY2025)
- Net income
- —
- Net margin
- 0.0%
- Revenue growth
- +41.5% a year, FY2017–FY2025
Dell
- Latest revenue
- $113.5B (FY2026)
- Net income
- $5.9B
- Net margin
- 5.2%
- Revenue growth
- +2.9% a year, FY2022–FY2026
Financial summary
Cloudflare
Cloudflare's revenue has compounded from $431.1 million in 2020 to $2.17 billion in 2025. In 2025 it posted 29.8% growth, 75.8% non-GAAP gross margin, $303.9 million of non-GAAP operating income (14.0% of revenue), $603.1 million of operating cash flow, and $260.6 million of free cash flow, while still reporting a $102.3 million GAAP net loss driven by stock-based compensation. Growth accelerated in 2026: Q2 2026 revenue was $696.1 million (+36% year over year), with a $170.0 million GAAP net loss and $107.8 million of non-GAAP net income. Cash and securities stood at $4.16 billion on June 30, 2026. Management raised full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $2.864-$2.870 billion in August 2026.
Dell
Dell's fiscal year ends in late January or early February. Revenue fell from $102.3 billion in fiscal 2023 to $88.4 billion in fiscal 2024 as post-pandemic PC demand faded, then recovered to $95.6 billion in fiscal 2025 and a record $113.5 billion in fiscal 2026, when net income reached $5.94 billion, operating cash flow topped $11 billion and $7.5 billion was returned to shareholders. Fiscal 2027 has accelerated: Q1 revenue was $43.8 billion (up 88%) and Q2 revenue was $47.0 billion (up 58%), with Q2 diluted EPS of $6.34. In September 2026 Dell raised full-year fiscal 2027 guidance to about $192 billion in revenue and $25.50 in non-GAAP EPS. The balance sheet still carries debt from the 2016 EMC deal, though leverage has fallen through the VMware spin-off and cash generation.
Revenue and profit by year
Cloudflare
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $2.2B | — | 0.0% | +29.8% | Source |
| FY2024 | $1.7B | — | 0.0% | +28.8% | Source |
| FY2023 | $1.3B | — | 0.0% | +33.0% | Source |
| FY2022 | $975.2M | — | 0.0% | +48.6% | Source |
| FY2021 | $656.4M | — | 0.0% | +52.3% | Source |
| FY2020 | $431.1M | — | 0.0% | +50.2% | Source |
| FY2019 | $287M | -$105.8M | -36.9% | +49.0% | Source |
| FY2018 | $192.7M | -$87.2M | -45.2% | +42.8% | Source |
| FY2017 | $134.9M | -$10.7M | -8.0% | — | Source |
Where the revenue comes from
Cloudflare
- Enterprise and large-customer contracts
Majority of revenue (exact split not stated here)
Annual and multi-year contracts with large organizations covering application security, Cloudflare One Zero Trust, email security, and network services.
- Self-serve and developer usage
Not separately disclosed
Monthly Pro and Business subscriptions plus usage-based billing for Workers, R2, D1, and Workers AI.
Dell
- Client SolutionsMajor
Revenue from commercial and consumer PCs, workstations, peripherals, and related support.
- Infrastructure SolutionsMajor
Revenue from servers, storage, networking, AI infrastructure, and data-center systems.
- Services, Support, and Financing
Supporting
Revenue from warranties, support contracts, deployment, managed services, and financing tied to hardware and infrastructure sales.
Business model and strategy
Cloudflare
How it makes money
Cloudflare makes money by selling subscriptions and usage-based services that run on a single global network. Millions of websites use a free plan; paying customers move up to Pro, Business, and Enterprise plans for advanced DDoS mitigation, web application firewall, bot management, and support.
Growth strategy
Cloudflare grows by landing customers with free or low-cost plans and expanding into more products per account. Its main growth vectors are larger enterprise contracts (it signed its largest-ever deal in Q4 2025, averaging $42.5 million per year in annual contract value), Cloudflare One Zero Trust, and the developer platform.
Competitive advantage
Cloudflare's advantage is its network: data centers in more than 330 cities that run every product on every server, combined with a free tier that brings an enormous volume of diverse traffic onto the platform. That traffic gives Cloudflare broad visibility into attacks, and the shared architecture lets it launch new security, AI, and developer products to its whole customer base at low marginal cost.
Dell
How it makes money
Dell makes money by selling hardware plus attached services and financing. The Infrastructure Solutions Group sells AI-optimized servers built around Nvidia (and some AMD) accelerators, traditional PowerEdge servers, networking and storage to enterprises, cloud service providers and governments; in Q2 fiscal 2027 ISG produced $31.8 billion of revenue and $4.8 billion of operating income.
Growth strategy
Dell's growth strategy has three parts. First, win AI infrastructure share by shipping GPU-dense, liquid-cooled rack systems (PowerEdge XE servers with Nvidia Blackwell-generation GPUs) to neoclouds, sovereign AI programs and large enterprises, packaged as the Dell AI Factory.
Competitive advantage
Dell's edge is breadth and scale in enterprise relationships. It can sell a customer everything from 10,000 laptops to a liquid-cooled GPU cluster with storage, networking, deployment and financing under one contract, and support it worldwide.
Questions about Cloudflare vs Dell
Which company has higher revenue — Cloudflare, Inc. or Dell Technologies Inc.?
Cloudflare, Inc. reported $2.2B (FY2025), while Dell Technologies Inc. reported $113.5B (FY2026). By last reported revenue, Dell Technologies Inc. is the larger business, with Cloudflare, Inc. reporting a smaller revenue base. Note: these are from different fiscal years and are not a direct like-for-like comparison.
What is the market cap of Cloudflare, Inc. vs Dell Technologies Inc.?
Cloudflare, Inc.'s market capitalisation stands at $122.5B, while Dell Technologies Inc.'s is $360.0B. Dell Technologies Inc. carries the higher market valuation, reflecting investors' expectations of its future earnings power relative to Cloudflare, Inc..
Which is more financially efficient — Cloudflare, Inc. or Dell Technologies Inc.?
Cloudflare, Inc. generates $420k / employee in revenue per employee, while Dell Technologies Inc. generates $1.17M / employee. Dell Technologies Inc. shows higher revenue efficiency per headcount, though this reflects business model differences — capital-light software companies routinely outperform labour-intensive manufacturers on this metric.
How do Cloudflare, Inc. and Dell Technologies Inc. make money?
Cloudflare, Inc. and Dell Technologies Inc. generate revenue in fundamentally different ways. Cloudflare, Inc.: Cloudflare makes money by selling subscriptions and usage-based services that run on a single global network. Dell Technologies Inc.: Dell makes money by selling hardware plus attached services and financing.
Which company is valued higher relative to revenue — Cloudflare, Inc. or Dell Technologies Inc.?
On a price-to-sales (P/S) basis, Cloudflare, Inc. trades at 56.5x P/S and Dell Technologies Inc. at 3.2x P/S. Cloudflare, Inc. commands a higher revenue multiple, typically indicating that investors expect faster growth or higher future margins compared to Dell Technologies Inc.. A higher multiple is not inherently better — it may also signal that the stock is priced for perfection.
Is Cloudflare, Inc. bigger than Dell Technologies Inc.?
By last reported revenue, Dell Technologies Inc. ($113.5B (FY2026)) is the larger company compared to Cloudflare, Inc. ($2.2B (FY2025)). Revenue scale is one dimension of size — market capitalisation, employee count, and geographic reach are also relevant depending on the context.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the Cloudflare vs Dell overview