[natpalmer1776]

I suppose I would be the minority in saying "so what?"

A 5% year over year increase in dividends that are a Very Big Deal to institutional investors that likely make up a large majority of their shareholders and hold the stock BECAUSE of those dividends.

Meanwhile, capex is still ongoing and the reduce in spending could just as easily be seen as a bearish response to potentially poor new development plans. What if project costs were exceeding mid-term profit projections? Or potentially never going to be profitable? What if... ad infinitum.

Responsible stewardship of a company like Intel requires accounting for a great many variables that do not get conveyed directly to shareholders. That dynamic is why representatives are a thing. That is why there are boards of directors.

The fact that the government is handing them a subsidy, the fact that they cut some new development projects, and the fact that shareholder dividends saw a 5% increase can, and from my layman's perspective, probably are completely and totally unrelated, and questioning the validity of any one of those things due to the presence of the others goes into the territory of "need more info".

[adrian_b]

At any other time that would not have looked so weird.

Now Intel has been forced to use an accounting trick to avoid losses that would have been the double of those reported:

"In the quarter ended in June, which we expect to be a very good one for AMD and Nvidia, Intel did not do so good. Revenues were down just a smidgen under 22 percent to $15.32 billion, gross margins were off 50.1 percent to $5.58 billion, and even with a $455 million benefit from taxes that Intel was keeping in its back pocket for a rainy day it posted a $454 million net loss. This is real red ink, and if it didn’t have that benefit and it had to pay some taxes, it could have easily been over $1 billion in losses."

From:

https://www.nextplatform.com/2022/07/29/intel-let-the-chips-...

It looks like now it should have been the time to prioritize saving their future over dividends.

[danielmarkbruce]

What if they can't save themselves? Paying out dividends at this point makes more sense than investing capital on which they'll earn a low or no return.

Does anyone believe Intel's problems are a lack of capital?

[spfzero]

I think most observers would put Intel in the category of companies that need to start making changes and invest in a new direction. If only because of the changing technological landscape at least, but for Intel also legacy, process, and competition issues.

Prudent leadership would be lowering dividends, as ATT did. For Intel to grow them, implies a diversion, IMHO.

[survirtual]

So what?

They are about to receive billions for their Ohio project from the public. Instead of using their own funds, they are paying out more money to their fat cats while taking money from the public.

They should be completely ineligible for public money now.