I don't think this hits their warchest at all. The # I heard on NPR this morning was about 2.5B/Quarter, but their profit is about 13B/quarter. Even with a 10B stock buyback plan, that's not quite a quarter of profits. Disregarding the buyback, they should still be adding to their warchest. I believe it's only when they announce a special, one-time type of dividend that it signals they don't think they will have anything to do with the money. For example, Ford basically did that a few years ago (although in retrospect 10B in electric research or something might have been wiser).