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The majority of Dell's fortune is derived from his stake in Dell Technologies, a publicly traded computer products maker. Dell owns about half of the company, according to an June 2024 form 4 filing, including 29 million shares held by a trust for his wife.

In November 2021, Dell Technologies completed the spin-off of VMWare through a special dividend. Dell owned about 170 million VMWare shares after the spinoff, according to its 2023 proxy statement. VMWare was acquired by Broadcom Inc in a cash and share transaction that closed in November 2023. About half of Dell's shares were converted to 22.2 million Broadcom shares while he received cash for the remainder, according to a Nov. 22, 2023 form 4 filing.

The value of his cash investments is based on those proceeds as well as dividends from Dell Technologies, insider transactions, taxes, market performance and donations. The Dell-backed investment firm MSD Partners merged with BDT & Company to become BDT & MSD Partners in 2023, and his investments through the firm are included with cash and other assets.

Todd Fogarty, a spokesman for Dell, declined to comment on the net worth calculation.

The Houston-born technology titan enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin in 1983 intending to study biology and pursue a career as a doctor. He was soon sidetracked selling computers. Armed with $1,000 in start-up money, Dell began selling upgraded personal computers and components to customers on and off campus from his freshman dorm.

He sold shares in a 1988 initial public offering, and eight years later his stake was valued at more than $1 billion. He created the investment firm MSD Capital in 1998 to oversee his family's growing fortune. He stepped down as CEO of Dell in 2004 but returned to the top spot three years later, after shrinking sales and an accounting scandal prompted the company's board to request his return. Since then, Dell has been expanding the company's product lines beyond PCs and laptops into servers, computer storage and networking products.

The billionaire took the business private in 2013. He agreed to buy EMC Corp. for about $67 billion in the largest technology acquisition ever in October 2015. Dell was relisted on the New York Stock Exchange at the end of 2018.

Most of his charitable giving is done through the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, which aims to improve the lives of children living in poverty around the world.