Dell Technologies has reduced its global workforce by around 11,000 employees in fiscal year 2026, shrinking its staff by nearly 10% as the company continues a strategy focused on cost control and organisational restructuring.
According to the company’s latest annual filing, Dell’s employee count dropped to about 97,000 as of January 31, 2026, compared with roughly 108,000 employees a year earlier. The reduction highlights the company’s continued efforts to streamline operations and manage expenses in a challenging technology market.
Dell described the move as part of “disciplined cost management”, saying the company is restructuring teams and adjusting its workforce to align with evolving business priorities. The cuts include a mix of layoffs, hiring slowdowns and natural attrition rather than a single large round of job cuts.
The workforce reduction also reflects a broader shift within the technology industry, where companies are increasingly reorganising operations while investing heavily in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.
Dell spent about $569 million on severance payments during the fiscal year as part of the workforce reduction process. The figure is lower than the approximately $693 million the company spent on severance the previous year, indicating a gradual approach to trimming its workforce.
The company has been steadily reducing its employee numbers in recent years. Since early 2023, Dell’s total workforce has declined significantly as the firm adjusts to slower growth in parts of the personal computer market and reallocates resources toward new growth areas.
Despite the job cuts, Dell remains optimistic about opportunities in artificial intelligence infrastructure. The company has been expanding its portfolio of AI-focused servers and data centre technologies, which are seeing growing demand as businesses increase investment in AI capabilities.
Dell expects its AI-optimised server business to play a key role in future growth, with demand expected to rise as organisations scale up computing infrastructure needed for artificial intelligence workloads.