Key Highlights

● Dell slumped on October 22, giving back Wednesday's rally as AI hardware sold off.

● Dell sells PCs, storage and servers, including AI servers for cloud providers.

● CoreWeave fell to a 17-month low of $55.60.

● Western Digital reported after the close and its shares swung in after-hours trading.

Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL) slumped on Thursday, October 22, 2026, giving back Wednesday's rally as AI hardware stocks sold off across the S&P 500. Reports differed on the size of the decline, but every source showed a steep drop. Dell issued no company-specific news.

Dell sells PCs, storage and servers, including the high-powered AI servers that cloud providers and businesses use to run AI models. That has made it one of the most closely watched AI hardware names, and one of the most sensitive to shifts in sentiment about AI spending.

From rally to retreat

On Wednesday, Dell and fellow server maker Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ:SMCI) had rallied. On Thursday, both reversed. The mood changed overnight after the third-quarter report from Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META).

Meta posted record revenue of $64.60 billion, but it narrowed its 2026 capital spending range to $135 billion to $145 billion and reported negative free cash flow of $2.12 billion, its first cash outflow in more than a decade, according to market data. Its spending commitments rose to about $825 billion, according to market data, and the cost of insuring its debt hit a record.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) added to the gloom. Its guidance had a midpoint slightly below consensus and cited supply-chain constraints. Lam's chief financial officer said "things are going to continue to be constrained."

The neocloud question

Remarks from Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA)'s chief executive hit AI hardware directly. He said, "If you look at the fundamentals, the demand for the neoclouds is off the charts." But he also said, "The demand of the capital is much greater than the availability of the capital."

Neoclouds, the specialized cloud providers that rent out AI computing power, are big buyers of servers. CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV), one of the best known, fell to a 17-month low of $55.60. Bernstein kept an Underperform rating and estimated CoreWeave needs about $85 billion to fund its committed backlog.

The market backdrop

The S&P 500 fell 93.74 points to 7,663.43, its worst day since July. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 694.00 points to 26,008.86, its steepest decline since June 5, and lost about $1 trillion in market value, according to market data. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index had its biggest one-day drop since June 23. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 11.89 points.

The S&P 500 technology sector was among the day's weakest performers. Yet about two of every three S&P 500 stocks rose, according to market reports, as money moved into staples, health care, utilities and homebuilders. The 10-year Treasury yield fell back below a closely watched threshold for the first time since September 22.

Dell Faces Repeated Reversals in AI Names

The next read on AI hardware demand comes from the biggest buyers. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) report on October 28, and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) reports on October 29. Any update to their server and data-center budgets will matter for Dell.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC), a storage peer, reported after Thursday's close, and its shares swung in after-hours trading despite beating forecasts and raising guidance, a sign of how jumpy investors remain.

The Federal Reserve announces its decision on October 28. Investors will also watch whether Wednesday-to-Thursday reversals like Dell's keep repeating, a sign of how quickly traders are moving in and out of AI names.