Dell vs Microsoft: Revenue, Profit and Business Model
Dell reported $113.5B of revenue in FY2026 and $5.9B of net income. Microsoft reported $331.8B of revenue in FY2026 and $133.7B of net income.
Latest financial snapshot
Financial summary
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.
Microsoft
Microsoft's FY2026 revenue rose 17.8% to $331.8 billion, operating income rose 21% to $155.2 billion, and GAAP net income rose 31% to $133.7 billion. Fourth-quarter revenue was $90.0 billion (up 18%) with net income of $35.8 billion, helped by a $3.2 billion gain on its Anthropic investment. Microsoft Cloud revenue reached $59.3 billion in Q4, up 27%. The main pressure point is capital intensity: AI data center spending has pushed free cash flow growth well below earnings growth.
Revenue and profit by year
Dell
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | $113.5B | $5.9B | 5.2% | +18.8% | Source |
| FY2025 | $95.6B | $4.6B | 4.8% | +8.1% | Source |
| FY2024 | $88.4B | $3.4B | 3.8% | -13.6% | Source |
| FY2023 | $102.3B | $2.4B | 2.4% | +1.1% | Source |
| FY2022 | $101.2B | $5.6B | 5.5% | — | Source |
Microsoft
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | $331.8B | $133.7B | 40.3% | +17.8% | Source |
| FY2025 | $281.7B | $101.8B | 36.1% | +14.9% | Source |
| FY2024 | $245.1B | $88.1B | 36.0% | +15.7% | Source |
| FY2023 | $211.9B | $72.4B | 34.1% | +6.9% | Source |
| FY2022 | $198.3B | $72.7B | 36.7% | +18.0% | Source |
| FY2021 | $168.1B | $61.3B | 36.5% | +17.5% | Source |
| FY2020 | $143B | $44.3B | 31.0% | +13.6% | Source |
| FY2019 | $125.8B | $39.2B | 31.2% | +14.0% | Source |
| FY2018 | $110.4B | $16.6B | 15.0% | +14.3% | Source |
| FY2017 | $96.6B | $25.5B | 26.4% | — | Source |
Where the revenue comes from
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.
Microsoft
- Productivity And Business ProcessesMajor
Office, Microsoft 365, LinkedIn, Dynamics, and related cloud services.
- Intelligent CloudMajor
Azure, server products, enterprise services, and cloud infrastructure.
- More Personal ComputingMajor
Windows, devices, gaming, search, and advertising.
- AI Services And CopilotsGrowth
AI features and model-powered services embedded across Azure, Microsoft 365, GitHub, security, and developer tools.
Business model and strategy
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.
Microsoft
How it makes money
Microsoft reports three segments. Intelligent Cloud covers Azure, SQL Server, Windows Server, GitHub, Nuance, and enterprise services; server products and cloud services alone brought in $129.4 billion in FY2026, and Azure passed $100 billion in annual revenue for the first time.
Growth strategy
Microsoft's growth plan centers on AI capacity and AI subscriptions. It is spending heavily on data centers and chips to meet Azure demand that management says remains capacity constrained, and it is selling Microsoft 365 Copilot as a paid add-on, which passed 30 million paid seats by the end of FY2026.
Competitive advantage
Microsoft's main advantage is distribution inside enterprises. Identity (Entra), email and documents (Microsoft 365), collaboration (Teams), developer tools (GitHub, Visual Studio), and cloud infrastructure (Azure) are often bought together, which raises switching costs and lets Microsoft attach new products such as Copilot to existing contracts.
Questions about Dell vs Microsoft
Which company has higher revenue — Dell Technologies Inc. or Microsoft Corporation?
Dell Technologies Inc. reported $113.5B (FY2026), while Microsoft Corporation reported $331.8B (FY2026). By last reported revenue, Microsoft Corporation is the larger business, with Dell Technologies Inc. reporting a smaller revenue base.
What is the market cap of Dell Technologies Inc. vs Microsoft Corporation?
Dell Technologies Inc.'s market capitalisation stands at $360.0B, while Microsoft Corporation's is $3.83T. Microsoft Corporation carries the higher market valuation, reflecting investors' expectations of its future earnings power relative to Dell Technologies Inc..
Which is more financially efficient — Dell Technologies Inc. or Microsoft Corporation?
Dell Technologies Inc. generates $1.17M / employee in revenue per employee, while Microsoft Corporation generates $1.49M / employee. Microsoft Corporation 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 Dell Technologies Inc. and Microsoft Corporation make money?
Dell Technologies Inc. and Microsoft Corporation generate revenue in fundamentally different ways. Dell Technologies Inc.: Dell makes money by selling hardware plus attached services and financing. Microsoft Corporation: Microsoft reports three segments.
Which company is valued higher relative to revenue — Dell Technologies Inc. or Microsoft Corporation?
On a price-to-sales (P/S) basis, Dell Technologies Inc. trades at 3.2x P/S and Microsoft Corporation at 11.5x P/S. Microsoft Corporation 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 Dell Technologies Inc. bigger than Microsoft Corporation?
By last reported revenue, Microsoft Corporation ($331.8B (FY2026)) is the larger company compared to Dell Technologies Inc. ($113.5B (FY2026)). 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 Dell vs Microsoft overview