Michael Dell, Founder & CEO of Dell Technologies
Biography
Michael Saul Dell was born on February 23, 1965, in Houston, Texas, to a Jewish family. His father, Alexander, was an orthodontist, and his mother, Lorraine, was a stockbroker. Dell showed entrepreneurial instincts from an early age — at 12, he ran a mail-order stamp trading business, and at 16, he earned $18,000 in a single year selling newspaper subscriptions by targeting newlyweds and new homeowners using public records data. At 15, he bought an Apple II computer and immediately took it apart to understand how it worked.
Dell enrolled as a pre-med student at the University of Texas at Austin in 1983 to please his parents, but his real passion was computers. From his dorm room at the Dobie Center, he began upgrading and selling PCs directly to consumers, quickly generating $50,000 to $80,000 per month. In January 1984, he registered his company as “PC’s Limited,” which would later become Dell Computer Corporation. He dropped out of college at 19 to run the business full-time.
Dell Technologies grew into one of the world’s largest technology infrastructure companies, with annual revenue approaching $94 billion. Dell took the company private in a landmark $24.9 billion leveraged buyout in 2013, then brought it back to public markets through an acquisition of EMC Corporation in 2016 — the largest technology merger in history at the time. In 1998, he founded MSD Capital (now DFO Management) to manage his family’s investments, which today oversees more than $16 billion in assets. As of 2025, Dell’s personal net worth is estimated at over $150 billion, making him one of the ten wealthiest people on Earth.
Orange Pill Story
Michael Dell’s relationship with Bitcoin has been a slow-burning evolution rather than a single moment of conversion. In July 2014, Dell Technologies became the largest e-commerce company in the world to accept Bitcoin as payment, partnering with Coinbase to enable purchases across Dell.com. The company even offered a 10% discount on Alienware gaming systems for customers who paid in Bitcoin — a bold move for a Fortune 50 corporation at a time when most businesses wouldn’t touch cryptocurrency.
Within weeks, Dell received an 85 BTC order for a single PowerEdge R920 server, worth over $50,000 at the time. Dell himself celebrated the milestone on social media. The Bitcoin payment program expanded to the UK and Canada before being quietly discontinued in October 2017 due to low consumer demand.
For years after, Dell stayed publicly neutral on Bitcoin — famously telling the New York Times DealBook in October 2021 that blockchain was “probably underrated” but that he would “pass” on giving an opinion about Bitcoin itself. Then, in the summer of 2024, something shifted. Dell posted “Scarcity creates value” on X, retweeted Michael Saylor‘s reply that “Bitcoin is Digital Scarcity,” shared a Cookie Monster meme gobbling up Bitcoin, ran a public poll in which Bitcoin beat out AI and love as “the most important thing,” posted “Fascinating #Bitcoin” in response to a BlackRock CEO interview, and declared “Enjoy #Bitcoin” — all within a matter of weeks. The crypto community took notice. Whether Dell has personally invested remains unknown, but the trajectory from cautious corporate adopter to enthusiastic public commentator is unmistakable.
Bitcoin Philosophy & Quotes
“Scarcity creates value.” — Michael Dell, X/Twitter, June 2024
“Fascinating #Bitcoin” — Michael Dell, X/Twitter, July 2024
“Enjoy #Bitcoin” — Michael Dell, X/Twitter, September 2024
“I think blockchain is probably underrated.” — Michael Dell, New York Times DealBook Interview, October 2021
“Dell is now the world’s largest ecommerce business to accept #bitcoin” — Michael Dell, Twitter, July 2014
“Recieved PowerEdge server order @ dell.com for more than 85 #bitcoin (~$50K USD)” — Michael Dell, Twitter, August 2014
“Bitcoin, I’m going to pass on that. I don’t really know.” — Michael Dell, New York Times DealBook Interview, October 2021
“Technology combined with great distribution can be a really, really powerful thing.” — Michael Dell, Founders Podcast, Episode #385
Involvement with Bitcoin
Dell Technologies was a genuine trailblazer in corporate Bitcoin adoption. In July 2014, the company became the largest e-commerce business on the planet to accept Bitcoin, processing payments through a partnership with Coinbase. At a time when annual revenue approached $57 billion, Dell was roughly four times the size of DISH Network — the previous record-holder for Bitcoin acceptance. The implementation was completed in just two weeks, and the company ran promotional campaigns offering 10% discounts on Alienware products for Bitcoin buyers.
The program expanded internationally to the UK and Canada before being discontinued in 2017 due to low transaction volumes. Despite the pause, Dell’s early move remains a landmark moment in Bitcoin’s commercial history — proving that the world’s largest technology companies could integrate cryptocurrency payments at scale.
In 2024, Dell’s personal engagement with Bitcoin surged on social media, sparking speculation that he might follow Michael Saylor’s playbook and add Bitcoin to Dell Technologies’ balance sheet. The speculation intensified after Dell sold 10 million shares of Dell Technologies stock worth $2.1 billion. However, when the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) submitted a shareholder proposal in January 2025 asking Dell’s board to evaluate Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset, the company petitioned the SEC to exclude it — arguing that investment strategy decisions belong to management, not shareholders. The SEC sided with Dell, permitting the company to omit the proposal from its 2025 proxy materials.
Media Appearances & Coverage
Michael Dell’s Bitcoin-related social media activity in the summer of 2024 generated extensive coverage across CoinDesk, Cointelegraph, Benzinga, CoinGape, CryptoBriefing, and Bloomberg. His “Scarcity creates value” tweet and subsequent interactions with Michael Saylor were featured in dozens of crypto and mainstream financial publications. Dell’s early Bitcoin adoption at Dell Technologies was documented by PCWorld, CoinDesk, and The Register in 2014. His 2021 comments on blockchain being “underrated” were covered by Decrypt, Yahoo Finance, and the New York Times. The Founders Podcast dedicated Episode #385 to Dell’s career and philosophy. The 2025 NCPPR shareholder proposal and SEC decision received widespread coverage in CryptoBriefing, CryptoTimes, and CoinPedia.
Notable Bitcoin Tweets
Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Technologies and one of the world’s wealthiest tech entrepreneurs, sparked massive speculation in 2024 when he began posting about Bitcoin on X, engaging with Michael Saylor and signaling growing interest in Bitcoin as a store of value.
“Fascinating. #Bitcoin”
— @MichaelDell, July 2024
View on X →
“Scarcity creates value.”
— @MichaelDell, June 2024
View Source →
“Enjoy #Bitcoin”
— @MichaelDell, September 2024
View on X →
Related Bitcoin Quotes
