Every feed you open right now has the same story: Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL | DELL Price Prediction) is on a tear. The stock closed at $434.97 on July 10, 2026, and the year-to-date chart looks like a launch ramp. If you didn’t buy it, the FOMO is real.
Here is the part nobody is posting about. The Invesco AI and Next Gen Software ETF (NYSEARCA:IGPT), a basket of AI and next-generation software names, also had a monster run over the exact same stretch. Exposure to the theme was enough to catch the move; picking the single winner was optional.
Same Window, Same Story
From December 31, 2025 through July 10, 2026, Dell returned 248.21%, with shares moving from $124.92 to $434.97. Over that same window, IGPT gained 66.4%, climbing from $59.47 to $98.96.
Put a dollar sign on it. A share of IGPT bought on New Year’s Eve for under sixty bucks is now worth nearly a hundred. Half a year. No earnings roulette, no single-name blowup risk, no staring at one ticker every morning.
Why Dell Ran, and Why the Theme Ran With It
Dell’s move was pure math. In fiscal Q1 2027, reported May 28, 2026, revenue hit $43.84 billion, up 87.5% year over year, and non-GAAP EPS came in at $4.86 versus a $2.96 consensus. AI-optimized server revenue alone was $16.13 billion, up 757% year over year. Dell booked $24.40 billion in AI orders in that quarter alone and guided full-year AI server revenue to roughly $60 billion.
That is a hyperscaler-and-enterprise AI infrastructure story with Dell as one beneficiary. The same capex wave lifting Dell is lifting the semiconductor supply chain, the networking vendors, the software companies selling into those data centers, and the cloud platforms renting the compute back out. IGPT is built around that theme: AI and next-generation software companies, held as a diversified basket rather than a single bet.
The Trade-off You Made By Not Chasing
Yes, DELL holders made much more. 248.21% versus 66.4% is not close. The reality is that concentrating in the right single stock beat the basket. It usually does, when you nail it.
The other side of that coin is the graveyard of AI darlings that did not work out. Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ:SMCI), another AI server story, spent 2024 and 2025 giving back enormous gains after accounting concerns and delayed filings scared holders out. That is the tax you pay for single-stock exposure: the top of the trade comes with the possibility of the bottom of one. IGPT spreads that risk across dozens of AI and software names for an expense ratio of roughly 0.60% a year.
Worth noting: Dell itself now trades at a forward P/E of 21, with 14 Buy and 5 Strong Buy ratings from analysts. The stock trades at a fair multiple and stands as the highest-beta expression of a theme that has many expressions.
Process Beats Prediction
Chasing hot tickers is stock-picking with extra regret attached. When you win, you celebrate. When you lose, you replay the entry every night. Owning the theme through something like IGPT hands you most of the move with a fraction of the emotional overhead, and it does not ask you to be right about which server vendor, which chip designer, or which software layer captures the most enterprise AI dollars.
The AI buildout is a multi-year capex cycle that extends well beyond any single earnings report. If your worry today is that you missed the Dell trade, the more useful question is whether your portfolio has any structural exposure to the driver behind it. Process over prediction. That is the whole game.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Top Gaining Stocks
Top Losing Stocks