Owed a billion dollars in Nvidia stock
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
An early Nvidia advisor discovered unexercised options from 1993 worth roughly a billion dollars, but statute of limitations blocked recovery.
Eric Gullichsen, an early Nvidia advisor, was granted 25,000 options in 1993 with a one-year quarterly vesting schedule. In 1996, Nvidia's CFO stated only 15,625 shares had vested and required exercise. Gullichsen exercised those and forgot the remainder. In 2024, he discovered the agreement specified all 25,000 shares vest in one year, meaning the remaining 9,375 shares (now 4.5 million shares after 480x splits) were unaccounted for. After a year of legal exchanges, Nvidia's counsel Cooley said to sue. Gullichsen's attorneys concluded a lawsuit would fail due to the statute of limitations.
What commenters are saying
Commenters clarified the author never owned the missing shares; options must be exercised to convert to stock, and the author failed to do so. Two camps formed: those citing the statute of limitations argument as sound corporate practice, and those disputing whether the vesting schedule in the offer letter (quarterly) or the options agreement cover sheet (yearly) was controlling. Several commenters shared their own experiences walking away from potentially lucrative IP claims (e.g., WiFi patents at Radiata) due to legal complexity and non-financial costs. A technical thread discussed the NV1's quads vs. triangles and early VR hardware.