Dell falls 8% as 2x leveraged DLLL ETF plunges 16%

By Sophie Lindqvist

The GraniteShares 2x Long DELL Daily ETF (NASDAQ:DLLL) recently traded at $11.40, down 16%, as Dell Technologies fell 8% to $341.60, according to 24/7 Wall St.

DLLL aims to give investors twice Dell’s daily move, so a sector selloff can become a much larger loss for the fund. Investors using single-stock leveraged products to chase AI infrastructure spending carry that extra risk.

Even so, Dell remained 174% higher year to date after the 8% decline, 24/7 Wall St. reported. Its fall over the past month has been steep, and DLLL has lost 69% over that period.

What triggered the AI hardware selloff?

The pullback came from broad sector selling rather than one Dell disclosure. 24/7 Wall St. said selling across AI hardware and chip stocks dragged the group lower and pulled Dell with it. Technology shares weakened as turmoil around NVIDIA weighed on the AI trade, and a linked 24/7 Wall St. report put NVIDIA down 4%.

The clearest catalyst was a legal overhang elsewhere in the group. Bloomberg reported on November 12 that the Justice Department is examining smuggling allegations involving Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ:SMCI). The stock stood at $26.54, down 2%, and 24/7 Wall St. noted that it fell when the probe news surfaced that day.

That response didn’t fit a simple headline trade. Super Micro, the company named most directly in the report, posted the smallest decline among the three stocks tracked. In 24/7 Wall St.’s market snapshot, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) fell 4% to $47.93, while Dell lost 8%.

Takeaway: The Justice Department allegations added uncertainty, but broad AI hardware selling did most of the visible damage.

How strong are Dell’s numbers behind the stock?

Dell’s operating results remained strong before the pullback. On September 1, the company disclosed Q2 FY2027 revenue of $46.97 billion, up 57.8% year over year.

On the same disclosure, Dell CEO Jeff Clarke said: "booked a record $60.9 billion in orders, recognized a record $16.4 billion in revenue and exited the quarter with a record $95 billion backlog." Those figures cover Dell’s AI server business.

Dell also raised its full-year FY2027 revenue guidance to $192 billion. 24/7 Wall St. contrasted those numbers with the stock’s path, noting that Dell remained 174% higher year to date even after the 8% decline.

The order and revenue figures also show where the tension sits. Booked AI server orders ran far ahead of revenue recognized in the same quarter, and the backlog stayed at a record. 24/7 Wall St. used that gap to frame the argument between demand strength and cash conversion.

Takeaway: Dell has fast-growing revenue and a record backlog, but the selloff shows how sharply the market can reprice that strength.

Why do the three companies carry different risks?

The three companies don’t carry the same business mix. Dell runs two main groups. Its Infrastructure Solutions Group sells AI-optimized servers, traditional servers, networking and storage. Its Client Solutions Group sells commercial and consumer PCs.

That PC business gives Dell diversification that pure AI server vendors lack. The trade-off sits in margins. As sales shift toward AI servers, Dell’s lower-profit systems put pressure on profitability, according to 24/7 Wall St.

HPE is a pure enterprise infrastructure company with no consumer PC exposure. Networking carries more weight in its mix after the Juniper Networks acquisition, giving it a growth driver distinct from Dell’s server-heavy order book. Corporate data centers are HPE’s core market.

Dell sells AI systems across a broader customer set, including hyperscalers, enterprises and sovereign AI initiatives. That expansion also feeds a wider supplier group in power, cooling and networking. 24/7 Wall St. separately profiled seven AI infrastructure names outside the chip business, showing how far the spending cycle reaches.

Super Micro is the most concentrated of the three. It is built around Data Center Building Block Solutions, or DCBBS, and focuses heavily on AI servers. That concentration comes with lower margins, while a board review of export-control transactions adds a governance concern flagged by 24/7 Wall St.

Takeaway: All three depend on AI infrastructure budgets, but their margins, customers and governance risks differ.

What could stabilize Dell and its peers?

The next question is whether AI server demand commentary can stabilize the group. Management’s own commentary supports the bull case, but its supply position cuts both ways.

On its September 1 earnings call, Dell management stated: "Demand outstrips supply. Demand was even greater than the results that we published there. We are supply constrained." The statement supports the bull case for a large, unmet order book.

The bear case, as 24/7 Wall St. framed it, centers on free cash flow. Dell’s free cash flow fell 47.2% year over year to $986 million in Q2 FY2027. A record backlog does not by itself settle when that spending becomes cash.

Component shortages in memory and storage chips could limit how quickly Dell turns orders into revenue, 24/7 Wall St. reported. That leaves investors with a straightforward choice: treat supply constraints as evidence of demand, or treat them as a brake on revenue and cash.

Takeaway: Dell’s backlog signals strong demand, while cash flow and component shortages set limits on how quickly that demand turns into results.

How does daily resetting magnify the ETF’s losses?

DLLL’s structure explains why its losses can dwarf Dell’s over time. The fund aims to deliver twice the daily move of Dell, then resets its leverage every day. 24/7 Wall St. says that daily reset can pull the fund away from twice the underlying stock’s move over longer periods.

A steep daily drop in Dell produces a larger drop in the GraniteShares fund by design. Its 69% decline over the past month shows how rough that mechanism can become. Weekly returns can differ sharply from twice Dell’s cumulative move, because each session starts with a fresh target.

Fees make the drag permanent. The fund carries a net expense ratio of 1.52%, and 24/7 Wall St. noted that costs add up alongside the amplified swings. Those swings could persist until the AI hardware selloff ends.

For leveraged single-stock funds, the daily number matters more than the long-term promise. DLLL’s 16% loss against Dell’s 8% drop shows the mechanism on a single session, while its 69% monthly decline shows what repeated daily leverage can produce.

Takeaway: DLLL is a daily, twice-leveraged bet on Dell, not a long-term promise to deliver twice Dell’s return.

For now, 24/7 Wall St. says the group’s next test is whether Dell’s demand commentary can steady AI hardware stocks. If it cannot, DLLL will keep magnifying Dell’s daily swings.