Michael Dell, founder and CEO of tech firm Dell Technologies (DELL), sold 10 million shares in his company worth about $1.22 billion in his second big September sale.
A Sept. 30 filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission shows Dell offloaded the 10 million shares and still holds over 16.91 million shares worth more than $2 billion at the time of publication.
The sale marks Dell’s second share dump in a month. Only days earlier, on Sept. 23, Dell disclosed that he’d sold 10 million shares of his namesake company worth about $1.17 billion across seven transactions between Sept. 19 and Sept. 23.
Dell Technologies’ stock price is up 58.5% this year, according to Google Finance. The rise saw it on Sept. 24 rejoin the S&P 500 — which tracks the largest 500 public companies in the US.
The tech firm is riding a wave of interest in artificial intelligence (AI) companies amid a surge in demand for servers that can keep up with the needs of running AI apps.
DELL hit all-time highs in May due to surging demand for AI hardware. Source: Google Finance
It’s unclear why Dell sold such large amounts of his company’s stock, but traders have yet to react to the sales, with DELL’s share price down just 0.33% in after-hours trading on Sept. 30 and up 0.74% in the last five trading days.
Dell sparked online interest in June with a series of cryptic X posts that raised speculation the tech founder was exploring Bitcoin (BTC) — either personally or for his business.
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“Scarcity creates value,” Dell posted — a phrase often used by Bitcoiners in reference to the cryptocurrency’s hard-capped supply of 21 million coins — which also caught Bitcoin bull and peer tech firm founder Michael Saylor’s attention.
Dell then reposted the MicroStrategy co-founder’s reply to his post, which said, “Bitcoin is Digital Scarcity.” He later shared an AI-generated picture of the Sesame Street character Cookie Monster eating Bitcoin-themed cookies.
Still, despite Dell’s crypto posting, Dell Technologies didn’t add any Bitcoin to its balance sheet in the second quarter of this year. Its results posted in August showed revenue up 9% year-on-year, along with record servers and networking revenue — up 80% from the year-earlier period.
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