That's funny, I had to think Intel or the government... but it is true for both. Over spent Intel is relying on an over spent government to bail them out. Not a good situation to be in. The markets cast their vote of irrelevance on Intel today.
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There are some key metrics wall street analysts look at.
On the balance sheet you would look at debt to equity. Using this measure, not a problem to add more debt.
However, on the income statement side of things we would look at dividend coverage ratio. This is the ratio = (net income - preferred dividend) / dividends. This one is a bigger problem. Intel lost $2.8 B in Q1 so the dividend coverage ratio is negative! Very very bad.
If this keeps up, Intel will be forced to cut the dividend. The credit rating of the company will fall (it was already downgraded this year). When the credit rating falls, it means Intel will have to pay higher interest on debt borrowing.
Things are hard to forecast from here. If you believe in hope, the PC market comes roaring back, Intel catches up on process, Intel breaks into contract manufacturing and takes share from the global leader in contract manufacturing and life is good. The Sun, moon and stars would all have to align perfectly. Could it happen? Yes, when pigs fly.
More realistically, PC sales come back slowly and the IFS moonshot is very slow to progress and/or it fails. In this more likely path, Intel will see substantially increased cost of capital, likely dividend cuts, large stock drop and wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Good question, good luck and I hope it all works out for you.
Intel already has way too much debt. You can check for yourself using the CAP-M analysis or just check with someone with a finance background.
I'm honestly curious.