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Each week is filled with surprises if you end up involved in media.

I suppose that is a part of the adrenaline-inducing rush of being in the sport, so to talk.

To that end, I used to be personally surprised by two things this week.

One, not everyone 30 years old and under has heard of Compaq.

As a transient refresher, they made large desktop computers that after connected to a phone jack that connected to the wall that connected to this thing called the World Wide Web (or web…).

Once all plugged in, you turned on the Compaq (the preferred model was the Compaq Presario) via a switch within the back, logged into something called an AOL (America Online) account, listened to loud techy noises come from the pc, and poof, you were magically connected to friends you simply saw at school and complete strangers in faraway lands.

You then got to posting sad songs in your MySpace account because, likelihood is, you simply broke up along with your highschool sweetheart for the ninth time in per week (or was that just me…).

Hewlett Packard, now split into PC maker HP Inc. (HPQ) and AI server play Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), bought its rival Compaq for about $19 billion in a 2002 deal. (Also try my recent chat with the CEO of HP and one other chat with the CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise.)

HP went on to discontinue the Compaq brand in 2013.

That a part of the history lesson done.

The following surprise for me this week is that not everyone under the age of 30 years old remembers the long-lasting “Dude, you’re getting a Dell” TV commercials. These commercials dominated the airwaves once I was in college, and I might argue they put Dell on the map with consumers that hardly knew the way to use a pc.

I don’t know why the commercials left an impression, but they did.

All in all, these jogged my memory that I used to be now moving closer to being a grey-beard at work. I haven’t any actual beard; it just means you’re this elder statesman. Weird to be in that place, but you’ll be able to’t outrun Father Time — even my bionic self. I envy the youth.

Having laid that each one out, I even have a surprise for YOU! That’s, did you really know that Dell has totally transformed itself? Just read the corporate’s annual report here and keep scrolling below.

Dell was founded in 1984 by then-University of Texas student Michael Dell. It made PCs, quite a lot of them.

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Through the years, the corporate has morphed into part PC maker, part tech player integral to the material of the world’s tech infrastructure. Think servers, storage, and other components for entire countries and firms that I won’t bore you listing.

The corporate is well beyond integrating its behemoth 2016 acquisition of EMC.

I got to spend 25 minutes with Michael Dell this week in NYC on the Citi TMT conference (video above) and was really blown away by what the corporate is working on. Was I surprised, full-stop? No, because I still read all the company’s earnings reports and earnings call transcripts. But I used to be somewhat surprised to listen to how deep the transformation runs at Dell.

On Friday, S&P Global announced that Dell will join the S&P 500, replacing Etsy, on Sept. 23. The move boosted its shares in prolonged trading, as the corporate will soon be in index funds that track the S&P 500.

It’s embarking on its latest transformation for the age of AI. Dell said it secured $3.1 billion of AI server sales within the second quarter, almost double the $1.7 billion netted within the preceding quarter.

Sales in the corporate’s Infrastructure Solutions Group surged 38% to $11.65 billion. AI sales are captured on this segment.

Dell’s Client Solutions Group — which incorporates sales of PCs and laptops — did see sales drop 4% to $12.41 billion. Consumer sales declined 22% to $1.86 billion, while the business business was flat at $10.6 billion.

Dell tells me the AI PC uptake has been pushed out a bit, but he has 200 million-plus Dell computers (aka the installed base). They may need the AI-powered replacements, and that money will soon start rolling in.

“What organizations are seeing is this can be a historic opportunity to make their businesses far more productive and efficient [with AI], while, at the identical time, type of reimagining them given all this capability,” Dell told me.

One other surprise — not less than to me — is how low-cost the corporate is being valued at by the market.

Shares of Dell trade on a 13.5x forward PE multiple, in response to Yahoo Finance data, well below the S&P 500’s 22.5x. I’m not saying the corporate needs to be valued on par with Nvidia (NVDA) or perhaps a Salesforce (CRM). But assign Dell an affordable 15x PE multiple on an affordable $9.40 a share profit estimate for fiscal 2026 (which might represent about 20% earnings growth), and you’ve got a $141 stock.

Dell’s stock currently trades at $107.

Head-scratching for an organization clearly playing a key role within the AI future. Possibly it is a function of its PC exposure.

Before I enterprise off to start looking for an AI PC, I’d wish to note I will likely be survive Yahoo Finance Monday and Tuesday from the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference on the Palace hotel in San Francisco. That is certainly one of my favorite conferences to cover every year, and now we have a ton of massive ticker-moving interviews lined up. So tune in, as your wealth could depend upon it.

I’m sure Dell will come up somewhere within the chats too, dude.

Thrice each week, I field insight-filled conversations with the largest names in business and markets on Yahoo Finance’s Opening Bid podcast. Find more episodes on our video hub. Watch in your preferred streaming service. Or listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you discover your favorite podcasts.

Within the Opening Bid episode below, State Street head of equity research Marija Veitmane reveals how she picks tech stocks with success for clients.

Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance’s Executive Editor. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn. Recommendations on deals, mergers, activist situations, or the rest? Email brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com.

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