In September 1993 the author was invited to join NVIDIA's Technical Advisory Board and received an option grant for 25,000 shares. According to the signed option agreement quoted in the narrative, the shares were to vest “in a series of quarterly installments so that all shares shall vest upon the expiration of one year from Grant Date,” meaning the full grant should have been exercisable by September 1994. [primary]
In April 1996 NVIDIA’s CFO sent a letter stating that 15,625 of the 25,000 shares had vested and needed to be exercised, which the author did before losing track of the matter. Years later, upon reviewing the original documents in 2024, the author noted that 15,625 represents exactly 62.5% of the grant – the amount that would have vested after ten quarters under a standard four‑year schedule (25% per year). However, because the agreement actually specified a one‑year vesting period, the author concluded that the remaining 9,375 shares should have vested well before the 1996 notice and were therefore wrongfully withheld. [primary]
Due to NVIDIA’s numerous stock splits over the decades – a cumulative 480× increase as stated in the piece – the author calculates that the 9,375 unclaimed shares are now equivalent to 4,500,000 shares. After engaging attorneys Allan Steyer of Steyer Lowenthal and Chris Burke of Korein Tillery and exchanging letters with NVIDIA’s counsel for about a year, the author was advised that the statute of limitations had expired, making any legal recovery unlikely given the three‑decade delay. The author concludes with a cautionary observation about how long companies are held to contractual obligations and wonders whether others have found similar vesting surprises decades later. [primary]