Ex-NVIDIA Advisor Claims $1B in Stock, Settlement Rejected

Imagine checking some old paperwork and realizing you might be owed a billion dollars. That's the wild situation Eric Gullichsen, a former member of NVIDIA's technical advisory board, says he's in. He claims the company owes him around $1 billion in stock, all because of a decades-old options agreement. And according to his blog post, NVIDIA isn't interested in settling.

Here's the backstory. Gullichsen says he received 25,000 options on September 9, 1993. Fast forward to 2024, when he re-read the grant documents. The cover page he signed stated: "All shares shall vest upon the expiration of one year from Grant Date." That means the options would vest quarterly over one year, fully owned by September 9, 1994.

But there's a twist. An undated invitation letter signed by Jensen Huang supposedly said the options "vest over 4 years." The cover page also noted that if there's a conflict, the attached legal terms take precedence and override all previous written agreements. So which one wins? That's the million-dollar question – or rather, the billion-dollar one.

Then there's the paper trail from 1996. On April 16, 1996, a letter from then-CFO Marcel Gani confirmed that Gullichsen had vested 15,625 shares. That's exactly 62.5% of 25,000, which lines up with 10 out of 16 quarters – a four-year quarterly vesting schedule. But Gullichsen argues that if the one-year cover page terms applied, he should have vested an additional 9,375 shares.

After accounting for NVIDIA's 480x stock split, that 9,375 becomes roughly 4.5 million shares. At NVIDIA's closing price of $225.07 on September 25, those shares would be worth about $1.01 billion. Yeah, billion with a B.

Gullichsen hired a contingency lawyer and spent about a year going back and forth with NVIDIA's legal team. They eventually met, and Gullichsen proposed a settlement far below the $1 billion figure. NVIDIA refused. His lawyers reportedly think the statute of limitations has long passed and that the exercise window closed back in July 1996. So this might be a tough fight.

What do you think? Is Gullichsen owed a fortune, or is this a case of too little, too late? Let us know in the comments.