Michael Dell

Dell was born on February 23, 1965 in Houston, Texas, to a Jewish family. His parents were Alexander Dell, an orthodontist, and Lorraine Charlotte (née Langfan), a stockbroker. Michael attended Herod Elementary School in Houston. In a bid to enter business early, he applied to take a high school equivalency exam at the age of eight. In his early teens, he invested his earnings from part-time jobs into stocks and precious metals.

Dell attended Memorial High School in Houston, selling subscriptions to the Houston Post in the summer. Dell's parents wanted him to be a doctor, so to please them, he took up pre-med at the University of Texas in 1983. Dell continued learning to target specific populations for newspaper subscriptions rather than just making cold calls. He discovered that people who were most likely to get a subscription were newlyweds and people moving to a new home. After collecting the contact information of this population from public records, he sent direct mail appeals and earned $18,000 in one year. He hired several employees, and after earning a gross profit of nearly $200,000 in his first year of business, Dell dropped out of the University of Texas at age 19.

While a freshman pre-med student at the University of Texas, Dell started an informal business putting together and selling upgrade kits for personal computers in Room 2713 of the Dobie Center residential building. He then applied for a vendor license to bid on contracts for the State of Texas, winning bids by not having the overhead of a computer store.

In January 1984, Dell recognized that selling PCs directly to consumers could cut costs compared to traditional retail. He registered his company as "PC's Limited" and began operating from a condominium, selling between $50,000 and $80,000 worth of PC upgrades, kits, and add-on components. Dell's strategy was to manufacture computers after receiving orders. In May, Dell incorporated the company as "Dell Computer Corporation" and relocated to a business center in North Austin. The company employed a few people as order takers, a few more to fill the orders, and, as Dell recalled, a manufacturing staff consisting of "three guys with screwdrivers sitting at six-foot tables". The venture's capitalization cost was $1,000. During the formative years of Dell Computer, Dell was mentored by Morton Meyerson.

In 1992, aged 27, he became the youngest CEO of a company ranked in Fortune magazine's list of the top 500 corporations. In 1996, Dell started selling computers over the Web, the same year his company launched its first servers. By March 1997, Dell Inc. reported about $1 million in sales per day from dell.com. In the first quarter of 2001, Dell Inc. reached a world market share of 12.8 percent, surpassing Compaq to become the world's largest PC maker. The metric marked the first time the rankings had shifted over the previous seven years. The company's combined shipments of desktops, notebooks and servers grew 34.3 percent worldwide and 30.7 percent in the United States at a time when competitors' sales were shrinking.

On March 4, 2004, Dell stepped down as CEO, but stayed as chairman of Dell Inc.'s board, while Kevin Rollins, then president and COO, became president and CEO. On January 31, 2007, Dell returned as CEO at the request of the board, succeeding Rollins.

In 2013, Michael Dell with the help of Silver Lake Partners, Microsoft, and a consortium of lenders took Dell, Inc. private. The deal was reportedly worth $25 billion and faced difficulties during its execution. Notable resistance came from Carl Icahn, but after several months he stepped aside. Michael Dell received a 75% stake in the company.

On October 12, 2015, Dell Inc. announced its intent to acquire the enterprise software and storage company EMC Corporation. At $67 billion, it was then labeled the "highest-valued tech acquisition in history". The acquisition was finalized September 7, 2016.

In May 2024, Dell announced a partnership with Nvidia and ServiceNow to develop "AI factories", aiming to provide scalable AI infrastructure solutions to enterprise clients.

He acquired a 5.3% minority ownership stake in the Las Vegas Raiders NFL team in May 2026.

Dell married Susan Lieberman on October 28, 1989, in Austin, Texas; the couple resides there with their four children.

Wealth

The centerpiece of the Kukio neighborhood in Hawaii is the 18,500-square-foot Raptor Residence, owned by Dell and valued at $64.7 million. With three lots and the widest waterfront view of any house in the neighborhood, Dell's house has seven bedrooms, seven full bathrooms, and five half bathrooms. Additionally, Dell owns a portion of Hualālai, which he purchased in 2006 through his private investment company.

In 1998, Dell founded MSD Capital L.P., later renamed DFO Management, to manage his family's investments.

Donations

Michael and Susan Dell established the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation in 1999, which focuses on causes related to health and education. According to Susan Dell, they have given away over $3 billion over the past 26 years, mostly to children's causes. This would put the Dells among the nation's top givers.

In December 2025, Michael and Susan Dell announced they would donate $6.25 billion to investment accounts for children, known as Trump accounts, in the United States. The donation is expected to provide $250 to 25 million children in ZIP codes with a median income of $150k or less for children 10 or under who were born before Jan. 1 2025. The Dells hope that other philanthropists, corporations, as well as state and local governments will contribute to the accounts.