• Dell clashed with former Labor Secretary Robert Reich on social media.
• The founder and CEO holds a 45% stake in his namesake company, currently valued at approximately $37 billion.
• President Donald Trump recently helped bump up Dell’s valuation.

Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell pushed back late Tuesday on social media against a former cabinet secretary's take on how billionaires make their money.

Robert Reich — who served as Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997 and sat on President Obama's economic transition advisory board — posted on X: "There are basically 5 ways to accumulate a billion dollars: 1) Profiting from a monopoly 2) Insider-trading 3) Political payoffs 4) Fraud 5) Inheritance. Don't believe the self-made myth."

Dell quoted the post and offered a sixth option: "Build something millions of people actually want."

Reich's post drew swift Community Notes on X, with one citing a University of Chicago study finding that 69% of the 2011 Forbes 400 had built their own businesses from scratch.

The Broader Context Of Dell's Counter

The exchange occurs amid an intensifying U.S. debate over wealth, capitalism, and taxation. Calls to tax the rich are reverberating across the country, from New York's proposed "pied-à-terre tax" to Washington State's first-ever income tax on millionaires. California may be next: the state is likely to put a "one-time" 5% wealth tax on assets above $1 billion on the November ballot.

The prospect has already prompted several high-profile departures from the Golden State, including Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and investor Peter Thiel, with most primarily relocating to Florida.

Dell's Trump Connection And Stock Run

Dell has maintained a warm relationship with President Trump since his first term. In December, Dell and his wife, Susan, announced a $6.25 billion donation to expand a government program that provides savings accounts for U.S. children, amid a wave of corporate contributions to Trump's second-term initiatives, the Wall Street Journal noted.

Trump returned the favor earlier this month, praising the Dell family and publicly urging people to "go out and buy a Dell," sending the stock to record highs.

The Business Behind Michael Dell

Dell first debuted on the stock market nearly four decades ago, went private in 2013, and returned to public markets via a reverse merger five years later. Since relisting on the NYSE in 2018, the stock has returned over 1,000%, comfortably outpacing the benchmark S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes. 

Annual revenue has grown by roughly 25% over that period, and profitability has steadily improved since 2020. Dell himself holds a 45% stake in the company, currently valued at approximately $37 billion, according to Fiscal.ai.

DELL stock used to be primarily driven by the PC market. Nowadays, it's riding the AI rally, driven by an explosion in demand for the company's servers powered by Nvidia and AMD chips. Just under half of Dell’s revenue comes from its PC business, and just over half comes from the servers and storage segment, according to a Morningstar report.

Wall Street is broadly bullish: 18 of 27 analysts covering DELL rate it 'Buy' or 'Strong Buy,' according to Koyfin. The consensus price target, however, implies the stock is trading at a nearly 20% premium to fair value, suggesting much of the good news may already be priced in. Dell’s closing price on Tuesday was about $239.

On Stocktwits, retail enthusiasm has been building steadily. Message volume for DELL has nearly tripled over the past year, followers are up over 16%, and sentiment has climbed from 'neutral' to 'extremely bullish.'

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