Michael Dell courted Trump early. His company has reaped rewards

Michael Dell bought into President Donald Trump‘s second term early. Now his hardware company Dell Technologies is closing out its best month on Wall Street since its return to the public market in 2018.

Since Trump returned to the White House last year, Michael Dell attended the president’s Invest America Roundtable event in June 2025. In December, Trump introduced the computer executive and his wife, Susan Dell, as they announced a $6.25 billion gift for 25 million U.S. children’s Trump Accounts. This month, Trump advised Americans to “go out and buy a Dell.”

On Wednesday, the company was awarded a $9.7 billion contract by the Pentagon to provide a suite of software to the U.S. military. The award came after what the Pentagon said was a competitive process, though the deal is being questioned by some experts in government.

The Pentagon contract, given to Dell Federal Systems, a part of the company that focuses on government, has raised eyebrows as a potential payback for the Trump Accounts donation.

“It looks terrible is the short answer,” said Greg Williams, director of the Center for Defense Information, part of the Project on Government Oversight. “Very publicly courting contributions to all sorts of projects of the president’s has created the very strong interest that they are in the business of soliciting contributions of various kinds in exchange either for access to the president or for outcomes that he may be able to influence.”

The dynamic is emblematic of how business is seeking to sow favor with the president in his second term, and has departed from the norms of big business philanthropy and business entreaties to the White House.

“What’s new here is they’re not giving through an intermediary or through a nonprofit or some type of a mediating durable institution, which is typically how philanthropy works,” said Megan Tompkins-Stange, an associate professor at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy. “Instead, they are giving directly to this branded initiative with Trump’s name.”

Even before the Pentagon deal, Dell Technologies has soared in value, with its stock nearly tripling in the past year. The company is now worth over $200 billion.

Michael Dell, its chairman and CEO, was among the business leaders Trump turned to in 2017 at the start of his first term in office. In 2018, Dell Technologies debuted on the New York Stock Exchange through a reverse merger, five years after Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake took Dell Inc. private. Dell expanded in 2016 with the acquisition of data center equipment company EMC.

Trump bought $1 million to $5 million in Dell shares on Feb. 10, according to a government ethics filing. On that day, the stock closed at $126.01. He…