SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK — The artificial intelligence sector continued to attract significant investor attention this week, with Dell Technologies reporting record quarterly results driven by AI server demand while Anthropic announced a massive funding round that values the company at nearly $1 trillion.
Dell Technologies shares jumped approximately 33 percent on Friday, their best single-day performance in years, after the company reported first-quarter revenue of $43.8 billion, an 88 percent increase year-over-year and well above Wall Street expectations of $35.5 billion. The results mark the fastest revenue growth for the company since returning to public markets in 2018.
Artificial intelligence servers alone generated $16.1 billion in revenue during the quarter, a 757 percent surge from the same period last year. For the first time, Dell’s AI server business surpassed its traditional personal computer segment, which reported $14.6 billion in revenue. New AI orders reached $24.4 billion during the quarter, with the company’s backlog standing at $51.3 billion at period end.
The strong performance prompted Dell to raise its full-year revenue forecast to $167 billion, up from its previous projection of $140 billion and significantly exceeding analyst estimates of $142 billion. The company now expects AI server revenue of $60 billion for the fiscal year.
“The AI supercycle is now underway,” said Ananda Baruah, an analyst at Loop Capital, who raised his price target for Dell shares to $550. The company also secured a $9.7 billion contract with the U.S. Department of Defense for software solutions.
In a separate development, Anthropic announced the completion of a $65 billion Series H funding round, bringing its post-money valuation to $965 billion. The round was led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, and Sequoia Capital, with participation from major technology investors including Capital Group, Coatue, and strategic partners Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron.
The valuation represents a significant milestone for the AI company, surpassing rival OpenAI’s most recent valuation of $852 billion. Anthropic reported annualized revenue exceeding $47 billion earlier this month, up from $30 billion a year ago, driven largely by enterprise adoption of its Claude AI models.
“This funding will help us serve the historic demand we are experiencing, stay at the research frontier, and bring Claude to more of the places where work happens,” said Krishna Rao, Anthropic’s chief financial officer.
The company’s latest Claude Opus 4.8 model was released this week, featuring improved reasoning capabilities and extended independent operation, according to company statements.
Analysts noted that the developments reflect continued robust investment in AI infrastructure and capabilities, with enterprise demand for AI-powered solutions showing no signs of slowing.