With that said, TI is still doing R&D and is investing in new facilities. They announced a new 300mm fab recently which will be several billion dollars in capex

With that said, TI is still doing R&D and is investing in new facilities. They announced a new 300mm fab recently which will be several billion dollars in capex. If you look at their annual report, they are defining free cash as the cash flow from operations minus capital expenditures. This is better than "invest nothing and send it all back". In 2019, their capex / cash flow was about 12%. They certainly don't invest nearly the amount that an Intel or TSMC would invest in their lines - but the products they produce don't really require that. I'm totally with you on stock buybacks being a big problem.