What is a cash flow waterfall?

A cash flow waterfall is a bar chart that walks from operating cash flow through capital expenditure to free cash flow, then shows how the remaining cash is allocated — acquisitions, buybacks, dividends, debt, and other financing — ending at the net change in cash. Each step is colour-coded: green bars add to the running total, red bars subtract.

How does Intel (INTC) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Intel generated $9.98B of operating cash flow and -$3.12B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of -31.3% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Intel (INTC) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent Intel's shareholder returns for TTM through Q1 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

Intel (INTC) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$9.98B

Capex

-$13.1B

Free Cash Flow

-$3.12B

FCF Margin

-31.3%

Cash flow waterfall for Intel (INTC) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: -$3.12B

Note: Other Investing is large — driven mainly by purchases or sales of investments.

Cash flow breakdown for Intel (INTC) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$9.98B	$9.98B
Capital Expenditure	-$13.1B	-$3.12B
Free Cash Flow	-$3.12B	-$3.12B
Acquisitions	-$2.53B	-$5.65B
Other Investing	$3.82B	-$1.83B
Net Debt Change	-$8.74B	-$10.6B
Other Financing & FX	$19.3B	$8.75B
Net Cash Increase	$8.75B	$8.75B

Operating Cash Flow$9.98B
Capital Expenditure-$13.1B
Free Cash Flow-$3.12B
Acquisitions-$2.53B
Other Investing$3.82B
Net Debt Change-$8.74B
Other Financing & FX$19.3B
Net Cash Increase$8.75B

Want to see what drove the FCF change?Free Cash Flow Bridge

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