It’s a good year to be Michael Dell.
His net worth is up over $80 billion. His company’s shares have risen 240% as it rides a wave of AI-driven growth. And, critically, Dell, 61, has found favor with perhaps the most influential man in the world: President Donald Trump.
Last week, Dell laptops received a ringing presidential endorsement that boosted the company’s stock.
“Go out and buy a Dell computer,” Trump told reporters at the White House at the launch of Trump Accounts on July 6, repeating a recommendation he had made in May. Later that day, Dell joined the president for lunch in the Rose Garden.
The tech CEO’s recent public rapport with Trump has centered on Trump Accounts, the new investment savings account for children, and it has become one of the more visible — and steady — corporate relationships of the president’s second term.
The Dells — Michael and his wife, Susan — made a $6.25 billion contribution to the program through their family foundation in December, and have appeared at several White House media days alongside the President.
The corporate world’s attitude toward Trump has changed since his first term, when cultivating a relationship with the president was often seen as a reputational risk. Now, many business leaders are working more closely with him.
The dynamic has seen the president exert pressure on Big Law, media organizations, universities, and, most recently, World Cup organizers. For executives, gaining Trump’s favor — or at least avoiding his criticism — can be a powerful incentive.
The Dell Foundation and Dell did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
Earning Trump’s favor
Dell is exactly the kind of homegrown American success story the president likes. Michael Dell started his PC company in his college dorm room and went on to become the youngest CEO ever to lead a Fortune 500 company, at 27.
Dell had some involvement with the first Trump administration, joining the president’s American Manufacturing Council, and attending a “day 1” meeting of business leaders, but his dealings then with Trump were more limited.
Now, things are different.
The two men have an easy rapport, as seen in recent footage of Dell joking with the president about owning a “Dellicopter” instead of a helicopter.
Trump Accounts launched on July 4th; Dell’s involvement in the program dates back at least a year — he was present at the first “Invest America” roundtable (which became Trump Accounts) in June 2025. Dell told CNBC in December that he first became interested in seeding investment accounts for children around 2021.
The Dell Foundation has long focused its philanthropic efforts on children, education, and economic opportunity, aligning with the mission of Trump Accounts.
The billionaire CEO has quietly appeared at other government functions. In March, he joined the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, alongside Marc Andreessen, Jensen Huang, and Mark Zuckerberg. Dell was previously a member of the council during President George W. Bush’s administration.
Dell also attended White House dinner for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in May.
“Michael and Susan Dell are patriots who are generously contributing billions of dollars of their fortune to the Trump Accounts of millions of kids from working-class families,” said White House spokesman Kush Desai.
The president “rightfully” praised Dell and others who have donated to the program, he added.
What stands out about Dell’s recent appearances is that, unlike other big-name tech leaders, whose faces are often as well known as the products their companies make, the billionaire CEO has tended to limit his time in the spotlight.
Dell rarely gives interviews or attends “it-crowd” events, and he was absent from the lineup of tech moguls at Trump’s inauguration.
“They aren’t ‘out there’ as big backers of politicians like some of these other CEOs,” said Douglas Schuler, a professor of Business and Public Policy at Rice Business School who specializes in corporate political activity.
“They seem to make political contributions to both sides of the aisle and to members of Congress where they have significant operations or with jurisdiction over their business activities,” he said.
It’s Dell’s year
Dell’s relationship with Trump has coincided with a string of wins for the company.
Since the Dell Foundation announced its donation in December, the president has purchased more than $1 million in Dell stock. In April, he sold at least $50,000 worth of Dell shares and possibly as much as $100,000.
In February, Dell Technologies landed a $10 billion contract renewal with the US Department of Defense. Navy Chief Information Officer Barry Tanner told reporters the contract was awarded after a competitive evaluation process.
Shares of Dell popped in the days after Trump’s promotion of the brand’s laptops last week.
Dell’s personal wealth is also surging. He’s now the world’s 6th-richest person with a net worth of $223 billion, adding $83.5 billion in 2026 alone, and trailing only Elon Musk in year-to-date wealth gain.
To be sure, Musk’s own wealth boom shows that billionaires’ net worth is hardly tied in the long term to how well they get along with the president.
After criticizing Trump’s “big beautiful bill,” Musk lost an estimated $34 billion in a single day, and Tesla’s shares fell 14%. A year later, he’s worth nearly $900 billion.
Dell owns roughly a 40% stake in his company, which has been enjoying a banner year driven by its AI offerings.
In May, the company reported its strongest quarterly earnings since its return to the public markets in 2018, with revenue of $43.8 billion.
Crucial to the company’s growth has been its positioning as a key provider of AI infrastructure. Revenues in Dell’s Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG), which sells GPUs, memory, networking, cooling, storage, and services, were up 181% year over year in its first quarter earnings report.
The company has also been overhauling its internal operations as it seeks to position itself for its next era, modernizing all systems and programs used across the business and reducing its workforce by 36,000 over the past three years through layoffs and attrition. As of January, Dell employed roughly 97,000 people, per its latest 10-K filing.
Where business meets politics
No matter what kind of approach executives take to Trump, there are no guarantees of a strong relationship with the president.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, for instance, has tempered criticism of Trump’s policies with praise over the years, but Trump still sued him and the bank for $5 billion in January, alleging JPMorgan closed his accounts for political reasons after the January 6 attack. The bank said the suit has no merit.
Businesses often combine their market strategy with non-market initiatives, such as lobbying governments, donating to charity, or working with NGOs, Schuler said. Some research suggests that companies taking this broader approach perform better financially, but it is much harder to show that corporate political activity itself leads to stronger financial results for companies or their executives, he said.
“Is it possible that they benefited personally or the company itself? Certainly,” Schuler of Rice University said. “Is it easy to show? No.”
Whether it’s genuinely aligned interests, political pragmatism, or a more calculated bid for influence, the president is in the Dells’ corner.
“They are truly incredible people,” Trump said last week, with the Dells beside him at the launch of Trump Accounts. “We’re going to get him that money back one way or another.”
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