Applied Materials vs. Dell Technologies: Comparing Stable vs. Accelerating Revenue Between These Artificial Intelligence Companies
Key Points
Dell Technologies currently leads on revenue volume on a comparative basis, while demonstrating a faster pace of upward movement than Applied Materials.
Dell Technologies delivered a continuous quarter-over-quarter revenue acceleration throughout the final year of the last eight quarters, whereas Applied Materials hovered near a steady baseline for several consecutive reporting cycles before registering a recent increase.
Individual investors examining these historical trends should watch whether the revenue gap separating the two companies continues to widen or begins to narrow in upcoming financial reporting periods.
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Applied Materials: Gradual Revenue Acceleration
Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) primarily generates its revenue by designing, developing, manufacturing, and selling the highly specialized engineering materials, technical services, and precision fabrication tools utilized by global electronics customers to manufacture complex integrated circuits.
It recently expanded its institutional research network by entering into multiple collaborative technology agreements with major university engineering programs, while additionally formalizing an arrangement to increase its strategic financial equity investment in BE Semiconductor Industries.
Dell Technologies: Sharp Revenue Growth
Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL) primarily generates its operational revenue by designing, producing, and selling a broad assortment of enterprise-grade infrastructure hardware, client computing devices, complex data storage equipment, and complementary software applications alongside extensive global technical support services.
It introduced a newly updated portfolio of specialized server hardware platforms designed specifically to handle intensive local workloads, and it simultaneously rolled out an entirely new line of advanced personal computing workstations while expanding its cybersecurity software integrations.
Why Revenue Matters for Investors
Revenue is a foundational baseline figure that helps everyday investors understand exactly how much total unadjusted capital a business brings in through its core commercial activities before any internal operational costs or taxes are subtracted. This metric reveals whether an organization is successfully attracting customers and growing its overall business volume over time.
Applied Materials vs. Dell Technologies Revenue over the last 8 quarters.
Quarterly Revenue for Applied Materials and Dell Technologies
| Calendar quarter | Applied Materials Revenue | Dell Technologies Revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 2024 | $7.0 billion (quarter ended Oct. 27, 2024) | $24.4 billion (quarter ended Nov. 1, 2024) |
| Q4 2024 | $7.2 billion (quarter ended Jan. 26, 2025) | $23.8 billion (quarter ended Jan. 31, 2025) |
| Q1 2025 | $7.1 billion (quarter ended April 27, 2025) | $23.4 billion (quarter ended May 2, 2025) |
| Q2 2025 | $7.3 billion (quarter ended July 27, 2025) | $29.8 billion (quarter ended Aug. 1, 2025) |
| Q3 2025 | $6.8 billion (quarter ended Oct. 26, 2025) | $27.0 billion (quarter ended Oct. 31, 2025) |
| Q4 2025 | $7.0 billion (quarter ended Jan. 31, 2026) | $33.4 billion (quarter ended Jan. 30, 2026) |
| Q1 2026 | $7.9 billion (quarter ended April 26, 2026) | $43.8 billion (quarter ended May 1, 2026) |
| Q2 2026 | $9.1 billion (quarter ended July 26, 2026) | $47.0 billion (quarter ended July 31, 2026) |
Data source: Financial Modeling Prep. Data as of Nov. 2, 2026.
Foolish Take
Comparing the revenue trajectories of Applied Materials and Dell Technologies quickly helps investors identify the faster growing company amid the artificial intelligence boom. From the end of 2025 into 2026, both have experienced rapid quarter-over-quarter sales growth, indicating customer demand has accelerated.
This acceleration is structurally driven by the explosion in enterprise artificial intelligence infrastructure spending, moving from steady linear growth to aggressive exponential scaling in 2026. Examining these two companies offers investors a masterclass in how the AI supercycle impacts different layers of the technology stack.
Applied Materials provides tech fundamental to constructing the advanced components required for AI, and that specialized role has allowed the company to not only achieve record revenue in its fiscal third quarter, ended July 26, as sales soared 25% year over year, but also to command a gross margin of more than 50%.
Dell delivers far greater revenue, and like Applied Materials, its fiscal 2027 Q2 income of $47 billion was also a record, representing massive 58% year-over-year growth. However, its gross margin was a much slimmer 20.9%, demonstrating to investors that Dell can capture enormous market share quickly, but faces compressed pricing power relative to key component suppliers such as Applied Materials.
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Robert Izquierdo has positions in Applied Materials and Dell Technologies. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Applied Materials. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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