What is Dell doing?

Dell gained 1,000 new enterprise customers in just one quarter. Photo: Bloomberg .

Dell Technologies has just announced 1,000 new customers for its AI Factory product line in a single quarter, bringing the total to 5,000 companies. CEO Michael Dell revealed this information in an interview on the sidelines of the Dell Technologies World conference in Las Vegas.

The AI Factory is a line of servers supporting artificial intelligence tasks, integrating Nvidia's chips, software, and services. Dell's new customers include several big names in the pharmaceutical and technology industries such as Eli Lilly, Honeywell, and Samsung Electronics. They primarily use the servers for drug research and building AI-optimized chip manufacturing plants.

"We've achieved outstanding success in this area. In the business environment, nothing is certain, but we've done a great job for our customers with their existing infrastructure. So they're giving us the opportunity to use AI to help them," said CEO Michael Dell.

Dell is a traditional supplier of servers and storage equipment to many large corporations in the US. The company is now fully leveraging that advantage as businesses begin to shift to deploying AI on their own infrastructure instead of relying entirely on the cloud.

However, the Dell CEO frankly pointed out a common mistake that large corporations are making.

"They simply took AI and integrated it into their existing business operations and systems. That really doesn't work," said Michael Dell.

To meet the demand for in-house AI deployment, Dell launched Dell Deskside Agentic AI, a product that runs directly on customers' Dell computers using Nvidia software, without the need for a cloud connection.

Dell is partnering with Nvidia to build a data center. Photo: Nvidia .

Dell is also expanding its partner ecosystem, collaborating with Google, Palantir, and SpaceX to bring AI models into its internal network. French AI startup Mistral is also expected to announce an expanded partnership with Dell, using Nvidia GPU servers to develop and distribute AI models.

"Businesses understand that when they restructure their workflows using AI, they can achieve 10 times, 20 times, or even 100 times greater efficiency," the Dell CEO stated.

While optimistic about the long term, Mr. Dell also cautioned about short-term risks. AI is inadvertently becoming a tool for hackers. He predicted a difficult period where businesses will have to strengthen their system security before AI truly makes the digital environment safer.