In 1993, Nvidia granted 25,000 stock options to early advisor Eric Gullichsen. According to Gullichsen, the company failed to vest 9,375 of these options, which he claims should have fully vested within one year based on his signed agreement. Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang initially offered the options with a four-year vesting schedule in a 1993 letter, but the formal agreement stipulated a one-year term.
By April 1996, Nvidia’s finance department confirmed that only 15,625 options had vested, following a ten-quarter schedule. Gullichsen states that he only discovered the discrepancy in 2024. Due to subsequent stock splits totaling 480-for-1, the disputed 9,375 options would now represent 4.5 million shares.
Based on the Nvidia stock closing price of $233.95 on October 2, 2026, the value of the missing shares is estimated at approximately $1.05 billion. Gullichsen consulted legal counsel, but the company’s external law firm, Cooley, argued that the claim is time-barred under California law, which typically limits contract disputes to four years.
Gullichsen noted that Nvidia did not contest the authenticity of the original option agreement. Despite the potential value of the claim, no formal lawsuit has been filed, as legal advisors anticipated the case would be dismissed due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
