Goldman Restarts Coverage on IT Hardware Firms, HP Target Cut to $21
- Rating Adjustments: Goldman restarted coverage on Dell Technologies (DELL), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), TD Synnex (SNX), and Penguin Solutions (PENG) with Buy ratings, while HP (HPQ) saw its price target cut to $21, indicating a cautious outlook on its future performance.
- Market Outlook: Analysts expect IT hardware demand to face challenges in 2026; while AI infrastructure demand remains strong, traditional PC and server markets may struggle due to high costs and weak demand, impacting overall industry performance.
- Investment Recommendations: Goldman advises investors to buy Dell Technologies (DELL) and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), with Dell seen as an AI-driven earnings grower and HPE showing attractive business transformation potential, while also recommending NetApp (NTAP) for its high-margin cloud service returns.
- Industry Dynamics: Despite underperformance in IT hardware stocks in 2025, Goldman believes there are selective investment opportunities in 2026, particularly as investors focus on AI demand sustainability and cost pressures, suggesting a patient approach for potential returns.
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- Strategic Investment: Nvidia has announced a significant investment in Thinking Machines Lab, founded by Mira Murati, aiming to enhance the customizability and general capabilities of AI systems through a multi-year strategic partnership, further solidifying its leadership in the AI sector.
- Technology Deployment: As part of the collaboration, Thinking Machines Lab has agreed to deploy at least one gigawatt of Nvidia's Vera Rubin systems, which are expected to ship in the second half of the year, showcasing Nvidia's ongoing innovation in high-performance computing.
- Product Launch: Thinking Machines Lab released its first product, Tinker, in October, which is an API that allows researchers and developers to fine-tune AI models, marking a significant advancement in AI application development.
- Funding Background: The startup raised $2 billion in July, indicating strong market confidence in its AI technology, while also providing robust support for Nvidia's investment, helping it maintain a competitive edge in the rapidly evolving AI market.
- Funding Scale and Valuation: Nscale has successfully raised $2 billion in Series C funding, achieving a valuation of $14.6 billion, with the round led by Norwegian Aker and US-based 8090 Industries, reflecting strong market confidence in its AI infrastructure.
- Strategic Development Plans: Nscale intends to utilize the proceeds from this funding to advance its AI infrastructure across Europe, North America, and Asia, aiming to enhance infrastructure capacity and expand its engineering and operations teams to support production-scale AI deployments.
- New Board Members: Nscale announced the addition of three new board members, including former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg, former Yahoo president Susan Decker, and former UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, which strengthens the company's governance and execution capabilities.
- Integration Agreement with Aker: Nscale has entered into an agreement with Aker to fully integrate their Aker Nscale joint venture announced in July 2025 into Nscale, ensuring that all projects continue under Nscale's management, further solidifying its market position.
- Market Opportunity Analysis: Despite heightened geopolitical tensions and financial market stress, global economic growth remains solid, with productivity gains from technological adoption providing attractive entry points for investors, particularly in technology and financial sectors.
- Impact of Iran Situation: The escalation of the Iran conflict has sharply increased oil prices, potentially leading to inflationary pressures; however, due to the degradation of Iran's military capabilities, the likelihood of a prolonged conflict appears low, offering a relatively optimistic outlook for the market.
- Private Credit Market Dynamics: The private credit asset management market has surged from $500 billion in 2020 to approximately $2 trillion today, and despite concerns over aggressive lending practices, Apollo Global Management's valuation remains attractive, with projected earnings growth of 14.3% over the next few years.
- Tech Stock Investment Opportunities: Companies like Nvidia, Broadcom, and Dell Technologies are showing strong growth potential in AI infrastructure and data center expansion, particularly Nvidia, which is expected to see a 59% surge in revenue this year, reflecting ongoing demand for AI computing.

Dividend Increases: Major companies across financial, industrial, and technology sectors have announced significant dividend increases, with some firms raising dividends by over 15%, reflecting strong performance and confidence in future growth.
AI Demand Impact: Companies benefiting from artificial intelligence demand are seeing substantial revenue growth, with one firm expecting to double its AI revenue in the upcoming fiscal year, leading to a 20% dividend increase.
Stock Performance: American Express and Waste Management have shown solid stock performance, with American Express experiencing a three-year total return exceeding 70%, while Waste Management has been able to pass on inflationary costs to customers, enhancing margins.
Dell's Growth and Dividends: Dell Technologies has reported impressive growth, with a nearly 300% increase in stock value over three years, and plans to increase its quarterly dividend by 20%, reflecting strong demand for its AI-optimized services.
- Product Upgrade and Pricing: Microsoft has launched the Microsoft 365 E7 subscription at $99 per user per month, a 65% increase from the $60 E5 subscription, aimed at attracting enterprise users to adopt its Copilot AI add-on, thereby boosting overall revenue.
- AI Investment Returns: The company has invested over $100 billion in data center infrastructure over the past year, particularly in Nvidia chips to support AI model operations, with AI product sales being a crucial way to demonstrate returns on this investment, expected to drive future profit growth.
- New Feature Release: Copilot Cowork will be introduced as a research preview, designed to handle multi-step tasks such as sending scheduled emails and preparing meeting documents, which is anticipated to further drive the adoption of Copilot and enhance user productivity.
- Market Expansion Potential: Analysts note that the launch of the E7 subscription will encourage more organizations to upgrade to E5, with Microsoft’s 365 commercial products and cloud services representing 30% of total revenue in the December quarter, indicating strong growth potential in the market.
- Massive Funding Round: Nscale announced it has raised $2 billion at a valuation of $14.6 billion, with the Series C led by Aker ASA and 8090 Industries, reflecting strong market confidence in AI infrastructure.
- Strong Investor Lineup: The funding round attracted notable investors including Nvidia, Dell, and Lenovo, indicating significant support from industry giants for Nscale's future development.
- Accelerating Infrastructure Development: The fresh capital will accelerate Nscale's development of vertically integrated AI infrastructure across Europe, North America, and Asia, covering GPU compute, networking, data services, and orchestration software to meet growing market demands.
- Broad Market Outlook: Nscale CEO Josh Payne emphasized that the AI boom is driving the largest infrastructure buildout in human history, positioning Nscale to lay the foundation for the future superintelligence market, signaling immense commercial potential.









