Dell Falls 8% to $341.60 as AI Hardware Selloff Wipes Out Leveraged ETF

Dell Technologies stock fell 8% to $341.60 in an AI hardware selloff, and the GraniteShares 2x Long DELL Daily ETF (NASDAQ:DLLL) plunged 16% to $11.40. The leveraged fund aims to deliver twice Dell's daily move, resets its leverage every day, and can drift from that multiple over longer periods. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) dropped 4% to $47.93 in the same rout.

The declines came amid turmoil around NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), which fell 4% as technology stocks sold off. Bloomberg reported on November 12 that the Justice Department is examining smuggling allegations involving Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ:SMCI). Super Micro closed down 2% at $26.54, the smallest decline of the three names. That fact cuts against the selloff's own narrative: the company most directly tied to the DOJ report is falling the least.

What do Dell's numbers actually show?

The selloff hit despite strong disclosed fundamentals. On September 1, Dell reported in its Q2 FY2027 filing that revenue rose 57.8% year over year to $46.97 billion. CEO Jeff Clarke said the AI server business "booked a record $60.9 billion in orders, recognized a record $16.4 billion in revenue and exited the quarter with a record $95 billion backlog." Dell also raised its full-year FY2027 revenue guidance to $192 billion.

The bears have a counter. Free cash flow fell 47.2% year over year to $986 million in the quarter. That number sits in the same filing as the record backlog. Even after the drop, Dell remains up 174% year to date, though it has fallen steeply over the past month.

Why did the leveraged ETF fall twice as hard?

The GraniteShares fund amplifies daily moves by design, so an 8% Dell decline becomes a 16% ETF decline. The swings have been violent. The fund has lost 69% over the past month, far more than Dell itself. Leveraged single-stock funds reset daily, so returns over weeks can differ sharply from twice the underlying stock's move. Costs compound the damage: the fund carries a net expense ratio of 1.52%. Those amplified swings could persist until the AI hardware selloff ends.

How do the three server vendors differ?

Dell runs two engines. Its Infrastructure Solutions Group sells AI-optimized servers, traditional servers, networking and storage; its Client Solutions Group sells commercial and consumer PCs. The PC arm gives Dell diversification that pure AI server vendors lack. The catch: AI servers carry lower margins, and the mix shift toward them has pressured profitability.

HPE is a pure enterprise infrastructure play with no consumer PC exposure. Networking carries more weight in its mix following the Juniper Networks acquisition, giving it a growth driver distinct from Dell's server-heavy order book. Corporate data centers are HPE's core market, while Dell also sells AI systems to hyperscalers, enterprises and sovereign AI initiatives.

Super Micro is the most concentrated of the three, built around its Data Center Building Block Solutions (DCBBS) and focused heavily on AI servers. Lower margins come with that focus. A board review of export-control transactions at Super Micro adds a governance concern.

What comes next for Dell?

Dell management said on the September 1 earnings call: "Demand outstrips supply. Demand was even greater than the results that we published there. We are supply constrained." The bulls point to the $95 billion backlog of unmet demand; the bears point to the 47.2% free cash flow decline and to component shortages in memory and storage chips that could limit how fast Dell converts orders into revenue. Whether AI server demand commentary stabilizes the group, and whether supply constraints ease enough to shrink that backlog, will set the pace for Dell and its leveraged fund in the weeks ahead.