Do we like them?

Do we like Michael Dell?

Our score: 6 out of 10. No harmful words of his own turned up and the giving is huge, but the record is thin and the Trump closeness leaves questions.

Michael Dell is the bloke who founded Dell Technologies and is now one of the richest people on the planet. Reports in September 2026 had his fortune climbing on the back of the AI boom, passing Jeff Bezos on one tally. Plenty of money, plenty of power, and plenty of reasons to look closely.

His biggest story is the money he gives away. In December 2025 he and his wife Susan pledged 6.25 billion dollars to put 250 dollars into the Trump Accounts of 25 million kids. The Washington Times called it one of the largest philanthropic gifts ever to go directly to Americans, and it is real money for real families.

The catch is who the cheque was handed to. The Dells announced it at the White House, and Trump gushed about it. Then in May 2026 Dell won a 9.7 billion dollar Pentagon contract, and critics asked whether it looked like payback. The Pentagon says it came from a competitive process, and there is no sign of any finding of wrongdoing.

On the harm check, we turned up no anti-LGBTQ+, anti-woman, anti-migrant or climate-denial words from Dell himself, which is rarer than you'd think among billionaires. Honest gap: the search was thin on his views, so this is an absence of evidence, not a glowing reference. Giving to a Trump-branded program is an act we note, not a harm in itself.

On the nice test, the one real stain is old. In 2016 a Delaware judge ruled that the 2013 take-private deal had undervalued Dell's shares, setting a fair value higher than the buyout price. That was a business dispute with shareholders, not a story about mistreating people. As for the October trolling of Susan, the abuse aimed at her is not on him, and defending her is fair enough.