Looking at the chart, would it not be a good time - especially with USD losing 8% of its value on a yearly basis? After all, you can only invest so much into capital projects and who knows what will be left of the US after Biden's tenure, so you want to be cautious.

Also Intel never had a hyper-inflated share price like most other semis. It's actually quite comical just how much the share price has dropped because its previously meagre dividend yield is now 10% due to denominator effects.

The buy back would similarly help ex-employees with stock or options, and I'm sure the package on the way out from Intel will be quite good.

See: https://www.tradingview.com/chart/?symbol=INTC 50% down YTD.

Intel suspended stock buybacks in Q2 2021 and hasnt done any since: https://www.intc.com/stock-info/dividends-and-buybacks

They had also suspended dividends and after getting the money immediately reinstated them.