Editor’s note: Electronics recycling will be featured in sessions at the 2026 E-Scrap: The Longevity Conference in New Orleans October 26-28.
In its earnings call with analysts on September 1, 2026, Dell Technologies confirmed the message HP delivered in its own earnings report a few days prior: Large enterprises are still refreshing their PC fleets, but the broader market is becoming less dependable as a source of physical units.
Dell reported strong commercial PC revenue in its fiscal second quarter, while acknowledging that cost-sensitive customers are extending their upgrade cycles. HP was more explicit, saying roughly 70% of the Windows 11 refresh is complete and forecasting a high-teens decline in PC shipments during the second half of the calendar year.
The two reports point to the same operating condition with regard to the sector’s impact on IT asset disposition programs. Customer spending can remain strong while the number of devices entering service begins to fall. That separation will eventually affect the volume and quality of equipment reaching ITAD channels.
Dell’s Client Solutions Group reported revenue of $15 billion, up 20% from the prior-year quarter. Commercial revenue increased 22% to $13.2 billion, while consumer revenue rose 7% to $1.8 billion.
Dell said large enterprises continue to refresh their PC fleets. More cost-sensitive customers are extending their upgrade cycles, leaving a larger population of older devices in use, a situation that creates two different retirement patterns. Large enterprises may continue releasing organized fleets of relatively recent commercial systems. Smaller organizations may delay disposition. Their devices will be older when they eventually reach the secondary market, which could reduce resale eligibility and increase the share sent to parts recovery or recycling.
Dell’s results alone could give ITAD operators a fairly positive view of the PC pipeline, while HP’s recent outlook provides an important unit-volume check.
HP said roughly 70% of the Windows 11 refresh cycle is complete. It expects PC shipments to decline in the high teens during the second half of the calendar year, even as revenue continues to benefit from higher-value products.
The difference comes from what each company disclosed. Dell reported commercial revenue growth without providing a comparable shipment forecast while HP offered a direct outlook for units.
Dell also credited pricing discipline and greater scale for its Client Solutions Group performance. Revenue can rise because customers are purchasing higher-priced configurations. Market-share gains can produce the same effect for an individual manufacturer during a period when total industry shipments are falling.
The Dell and HP results therefore fit within the same market outlook. Large-enterprise refresh activity continues, while the broad Windows 11 replacement cycle moves beyond its highest-volume period.
Putting it into the ITAD context, industry operators should expect the remaining commercial opportunity likely to be concentrated among providers with direct enterprise relationships. Processing companies that depend on broad market growth or large volumes of entry-level PCs or transactional users face a less favorable outlook.
Higher-value PCs change processing economics
HP reported that AI-capable PCs accounted for 46% of Personal Systems shipments during its quarter. The company expects that share to rise to 60% to 70% in fiscal 2027. Commercial systems represented more than 70% of Personal Systems revenue.
Dell did not provide an equivalent AI-PC shipment percentage, but its strength among large enterprise customers points to a similar movement toward higher-value commercial configurations.
As reported in the Resource Recycling article on HP’s results, the future ITAD stream may therefore contain fewer units with greater value per device. Higher memory and storage configurations can support stronger resale prices. But workstations and premium notebooks also increase the financial cost of grading errors.
HP’s forecast carries the clearest warning for bulk PC capacity. Dell’s commercial performance offers a better outlook for enterprise sourcing. Providers should distinguish between those two signals when planning labor and facility investments for 2027.
Dell’s data-center business provides a second source of activity
Dell’s infrastructure results provide a separate opportunity for ITAD companies.
Infrastructure Solutions Group revenue increased a solid 89% to $31.8 billion. Traditional server and networking revenue reached $10.5 billion, up 122%. Storage revenue increased 26% to $4.9 billion.
Dell said most traditional server growth came from existing enterprise customers modernizing their data centers. The company also said its installed base still contains 1.2 million systems from the 14th generation or earlier.
The current modernization cycle can release a large number of older servers. The replacement environment will contain fewer physical systems in some installations, which may reduce the number of chassis retiring in the following cycle.
Dell also reported $16.4 billion in AI server revenue and a $95 billion ending backlog. These new systems will take years to become a regular ITAD stream. Current opportunities are more likely to come from conventional infrastructure removed to provide rack space and power capacity for new deployments.
Dell’s quarter supports continued investment in enterprise sourcing and defined data-center capabilities, while HP’s outlook argues for caution on broad PC-processing expansion. The two leading tech OEMs point to an ITAD market with less dependable unit growth and more recovery value concentrated in each asset.
And so while OEM revenue remains useful as an indicator of technology spending, it is becoming less useful as a measure of how many devices will reach the dock.
