Investing.com -- Super Micro Computer projected fiscal 2027 revenue of $65–$72 billion, shattering analysts' average estimate of $52.50 billion and sending its shares up roughly 9% in pre-market trading Wednesday.

Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL) and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) are rising in sympathy ahead of the open, as investors treat SMCI's results as a live demand barometer for the entire AI server hardware sector. When SMCI previously reported disappointing results, Dell shares fell in tandem — and the reverse dynamic is now playing out. DELL is up 2.6%, while HPE is up 2.2%.

The guidance headline was backstopped by a margin recovery that exceeded even SMCI's own revised expectations. Gross margin for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 came in at 17.5%, above the company's preliminary estimate of 15%–17% and far ahead of its original forecast of 8.2%–8.4%, with CFO David Weigand crediting a better-than-expected customer and product mix, Reuters reported. Q4 revenue nearly doubled year-over-year to $11.12 billion, though that figure fell short of the $11.55 billion consensus, landing at the low end of prior guidance. CEO Charles Liang attributed the miss to short-term customer delays in power, cooling, and networking infrastructure.

The read-across extended well beyond Dell and HPE. CoreWeave shares surged more than 18% in pre-market trading Wednesday, while Nebius Group climbed 10% and Applied Digital and IREN each added 5–6%. CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator stated that near-term capacity is effectively sold out, enabling the company to strike compute agreements on increasingly favorable terms — a signal that AI infrastructure demand remains tight across the stack.

SMCI's customer concentration data reinforced the breadth of the cycle. The company counted nine customers generating more than $1 billion in annual revenue in fiscal 2026, up from four such customers a year earlier. That doubling of hyperscale-tier clients underscores that demand is not concentrated in a single relationship but spreading across major cloud and enterprise deployments.

The pre-market gains for Dell and HPE come on top of moves the two stocks made earlier in the week, with both companies entering the current reporting cycle with substantial AI backlogs: Dell held a record AI systems backlog of $51.3 billion entering the quarter, while HPE reported a cumulative AI backlog of $16.4 billion.

The macro tailwind is unlikely to fade soon. Big Tech companies have signaled AI spending will not slow, with combined capital outlays set to surpass $730 billion in 2026, underpinning sustained orders for server hardware across the sector.

Both Dell and HPE are expected to report their quarterly results in early September.