Coca-Cola vs Dell: Revenue, Profit and Business Model
Coca-Cola reported $47.9B of revenue in FY2025 and $13.1B of net income. Dell reported $113.5B of revenue in FY2026 and $5.9B of net income.
Latest financial snapshot
Financial summary
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola's financial profile comes from its asset-light franchise model. It sells concentrates and syrups to independent bottlers, which own the capital-intensive plants, trucks and coolers, so the parent company keeps high margins on a relatively small asset base. FY2025 revenue was $47.941 billion with $13.107 billion in net income, up from $47.061 billion in revenue in 2024. In Q2 2026, net revenue grew 7% to $13.4 billion and comparable EPS rose 11% to $0.97. That cash supports the dividend: in February 2026 the board approved a 64th consecutive annual increase, to $0.53 per quarter. Berkshire Hathaway has held 400 million shares since the early 1990s, making it the largest single shareholder.
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
Coca-Cola
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $47.9B | $13.1B | 27.3% | +1.9% | Source |
| FY2024 | $47.1B | — | 0.0% | +2.9% | Source |
| FY2023 | $45.8B | $10.7B | 23.4% | +6.4% | Source |
| FY2022 | $43B | $9.5B | 22.2% | +11.3% | Source |
| FY2021 | $38.7B | — | 0.0% | +17.1% | Source |
| FY2020 | $33B | — | 0.0% | -11.4% | Source |
| FY2019 | $37.3B | $8.9B | 23.9% | — | Source |
Where the revenue comes from
Coca-Cola
- Concentrate operations
Roughly 55-60% of net operating revenue
Sales of concentrates, syrups and beverage bases to authorized bottlers and fountain customers; the high-margin core of the model.
- Finished product operations
Roughly 40-45% of net operating revenue
Company-owned bottling operations, Costa Coffee, fairlife and other businesses that sell finished beverages directly to retailers and distributors.
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
Coca-Cola
How it makes money
Coca-Cola runs a franchise model. The company develops or acquires beverage recipes and runs global marketing, including sponsorships such as the Olympics. It earns revenue by selling concentrate to independent bottling companies around the world, such as Coca-Cola Europacific Partners. The bottlers add water, package the drinks and handle distribution, and pay Coca-Cola for the right to sell its brands.
Growth strategy
Coca-Cola calls itself a 'total beverage company': it keeps trademark Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar at the center while building scale in coffee (Costa), sports hydration (BodyArmor, Powerade), premium water (Smartwater, Topo Chico) and value-added dairy (fairlife).
Competitive advantage
Coca-Cola's advantage is its brand and its distribution network. Its products reach even very remote places through a system of bottlers, trucks and independent shopkeepers that took more than a century to build. A new drinks company can develop a product people like, but it cannot quickly match Coca-Cola's reach into shops and refrigerators worldwide.
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 Coca-Cola vs Dell
Which company has higher revenue — The Coca-Cola Company or Dell Technologies Inc.?
The Coca-Cola Company reported $47.9B (FY2025), while Dell Technologies Inc. reported $113.5B (FY2026). By last reported revenue, Dell Technologies Inc. is the larger business, with The Coca-Cola Company 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 The Coca-Cola Company vs Dell Technologies Inc.?
The Coca-Cola Company's market capitalisation stands at $379.0B, while Dell Technologies Inc.'s is $360.0B. The Coca-Cola Company carries the higher market valuation, reflecting investors' expectations of its future earnings power relative to Dell Technologies Inc..
Which is more financially efficient — The Coca-Cola Company or Dell Technologies Inc.?
The Coca-Cola Company generates $727k / 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 The Coca-Cola Company and Dell Technologies Inc. make money?
The Coca-Cola Company and Dell Technologies Inc. generate revenue in fundamentally different ways. The Coca-Cola Company: Coca-Cola runs a franchise model. Dell Technologies Inc.: Dell makes money by selling hardware plus attached services and financing.
Which company is valued higher relative to revenue — The Coca-Cola Company or Dell Technologies Inc.?
On a price-to-sales (P/S) basis, The Coca-Cola Company trades at 7.9x P/S and Dell Technologies Inc. at 3.2x P/S. The Coca-Cola Company 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 The Coca-Cola Company bigger than Dell Technologies Inc.?
By last reported revenue, Dell Technologies Inc. ($113.5B (FY2026)) is the larger company compared to The Coca-Cola Company ($47.9B (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 Coca-Cola vs Dell overview