What happened
On September 8, Mad Money's Jim Cramer said Super Micro has accounting "irregularities," said he cannot recommend the stock, and repeated his preference for Dell over Super Micro.
Why it matters
Super Micro's fiscal 2026 10-K reported internal control over financial reporting was not effective as of June 30, 2026. Auditor BDO USA issued an adverse opinion on those controls, not on the financial statements.
What to watch
Cramer has cited accounting concerns since at least March 17 and April 13, so his stance looks unlikely to shift until Super Micro resolves the remaining IT-related weakness and the testing, remediation and assessment it says are still required.
WHO IT HITSRetail investors holding Super Micro (SMCI) shares and those weighing it against Dell (DELL) face two contrasting risk profiles: one company discloses an ineffective-control opinion, while Dell reports effective internal controls but flags competitive and supplier reliance risks.
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Cramer's comments are not a one-off. He told a caller on March 17 that "You're buying Dell. You're not buying SMCI; you're buying Dell. I've had enough." On April 13, he repeated his accounting concerns, saying "account irregularities in my book equal sell." The September 8 exchange extends a position he has held for months, even as Super Micro reported more than $60 billion in new orders on August 11 and CEO Charles Liang pointed to profitability gains from a richer enterprise customer mix.
Both companies are riding the same AI-server demand wave. Dell reported $60.9 billion in AI-server orders in its fiscal second quarter of 2027 and a record $95 billion AI-optimized server backlog, alongside $47 billion in quarterly revenue. But the filing records diverge: Super Micro disclosed an ineffective internal-control opinion from BDO USA, while Dell reported effective internal control over financial reporting. Dell's disclosed risks are instead competitive pressure and reliance on third-party suppliers, including single-source and limited-source suppliers, with demand for AI solutions continuing to exceed supply.
What happens next likely hinges on how quickly Super Micro can complete the remediation, testing and assessment it says remain outstanding for its IT-related weakness. Until that is resolved, Cramer's stated stance suggests the accounting issue may keep weighing on how some investors view SMCI relative to Dell, even while both companies report record AI demand.
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