Plan your xAI ISO exercise
Calculator · free · no signup · pre-IPOxAI is pre-IPO. Plan your AMT impact at any valuation: current 409A, expected IPO price, or post-IPO scenarios.
Beta · invite-only · AlphaLatitude Inc. · Free Tools
Your grant
Seeded from secondary-market data, as of May 15, 2026
Tax inputs
Grant timeline
Net final value at year 3 sale — optimized plan
$324,117
After-tax dollars at end of year 3, net of all federal + state taxes through the sale.
This year: exercise 3,412 shares (of 10,000 total).
= gross gain at sale − federal + state LTCG − AMT premium above baseline regular tax (time-valued)
AMT premium for exercising: $196,111 (on top of $228,434 regular tax across the horizon)
Optimized plan keeps $53,377 more than lump-sum, $758 more than even split.
Federal AMT crossover this year: 781 shares ($57,238 bargain element). Above that, each additional share this year adds federal AMT.
Estimates only. Not financial advice.
Net final value by year
Running tally: NTV from shares exercised through year y, minus AMT premium paid through year y. The last year matches the plan's headline NTV. Hover a year for plan totals.
Optimized exercise schedule
You pay the higher of Regular tax and Tentative AMT per jurisdiction, then subtract Credit recovered. The result is Net tax. Hover any number for the bracket-by-bracket breakdown.
| 1 | 3,412 | |||
| 2 | 3,321 | |||
| 3 | 3,267 |
Federal AMT credit
Earned
$161,425
Recovered
$0
Remaining
$161,425
The AMT credit only recovers in years where regular tax exceeds AMT — typically a year with no ISO exercise. Every year in this schedule has bargain element, so AMT exceeds regular tax in every year and the credit carries forward untouched. Try a longer horizon or fewer total shares to introduce a recovery year.
Plan comparison
Net value at the end of your hold horizon.
Lump-sum
All in Year 1
$270,740
−$53,377
Even split
Equal shares each year
$323,359
−$758
Optimized
Tax-aware schedule
$324,117
Highest
Estimates only. Excludes disqualifying dispositions, NSOs, multi-state moves, and AMT preferences other than ISO bargain elements. Long-term capital gains tax assumes a qualifying disposition (ISO held ≥1 yr from exercise and ≥2 yr from grant); state LTCG follows ordinary brackets except where the state grants preferential treatment (HI, ND, SC, WI, AR, NM) or has a dedicated LTCG-only tax (WA). Assumes you are within the $100K ISO limit (any portion of an annual ISO grant whose FMV at grant exceeds $100K is treated as NSO from the start, §422(d)). State AMT figures are 2025 (next-year values published in late 2026). Not financial advice.
QSBS note. If your shares qualify (typically pre-IPO C-corp grants held 5+ years), a federal rule lets you exclude up to $10M of gain on a future sale from federal tax. That single rule shifts exercise-timing math more than AMT does. (This is §1202 “qualified small-business stock”.) Modeled in beta, not here.
You optimized one grant in isolation. The beta optimizes ISOs alongside your RSUs, NSOs, and stock in one plan.
Request beta access →About xAI
xAI is a privately held AI company, incorporated in Nevada and headquartered in Palo Alto, CA.
Last reported secondary-market price: $78.28 per share (as of 2026-05-15). Your own 409A may differ.
Merged with SpaceX entity.
Equity grants at xAI typically include incentive stock options (ISOs) and non-qualified stock options (NSOs).
X.AI LLC, doing business as xAI, is a subsidiary of the American spaceflight company SpaceX working in the areas of artificial intelligence (AI) and social media. xAI's flagship products are the generative AI chatbot Grok and the social network X, which was acquired in March 2025. It has also constructed the Colossus supercomputer and launched a data center business. The company will develop a humanoid AI platform called Macrohard, which is intended for integration into a future robotic workforce across a range of applications; its current focus is developing virtual assistants. Prior to being acquired by SpaceX in February 2026, xAI's assets were part of a standalone corporation named X.AI Corp., founded by Elon Musk and 11 researchers in 2023.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Elon Musk founded xAI in March 2023 with a team of eleven researchers drawn from DeepMind, OpenAI, and Google. The company builds Grok, a conversational AI chatbot integrated into X (formerly Twitter), and operates Colossus, a Memphis-based supercluster that scaled to 555,000 NVIDIA GPUs by early 2026. Grok 3, released in February 2025, scored 93.3% on the AIME 2025 mathematics benchmark. xAI raised $6 billion in a May 2024 Series B, another $6 billion in December 2024, and a $20 billion Series E in January 2026, reaching a $230 billion valuation.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Equity comp at xAI
- In February 2026, SpaceX acquired xAI in an all-stock deal. Each xAI share converted into 0.1433 SpaceX shares, converting all xAI equity (vested options, unvested grants, RSUs) into SpaceX equity at the same ratio. For equity planning, employees who held xAI grants now hold SpaceX grants. Standard tax treatment (ISO for incentive stock options, NSO for non-qualified, or ordinary income on RSU vest) carried forward through the conversion with terms adjusted proportionally. Liquidity now depends on SpaceX's twice-yearly tender offer (a company-organized window where employees can sell vested shares to outside buyers) calendar and SpaceX's planned IPO, not any independent xAI path.
Sources: cnbc.com · techcrunch.com
Researched 2026-05-07.
OptionsAhoy is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by xAI.
The calculator works at any xAI valuation: enter your strike, the current 409A FMV, an expected IPO price, or anywhere in between. AMT is triggered on the bargain element (FMV minus strike) when you exercise; the calculator models federal AMT, state AMT, and the multi-year credit-recovery path.
Example: at xAI's last reported price of $78.28, exercising 5,000 ISOs with a $23.48 strike creates a $274,000 bargain element. Above the 2026 federal AMT exemption ($88,100 single, $137,000 married joint), the 28% AMT rate adds roughly $76,720 on top of regular tax before any state AMT (CA, CO, CT, MN). The credit recovers in later years when your regular tax exceeds AMT. The calculator above runs your exact figures.
All xAI tools → · Use the generic AMT + ISO Exercise Calculator for any company.
xAI equity questions
- How much alternative minimum tax (AMT) will I owe exercising xAI ISOs?
- Exercising incentive stock options (ISOs) does not create regular income tax, but the bargain element (the fair market value at exercise minus your strike price) counts toward the alternative minimum tax (AMT). The amount depends on the bargain element, your other income, your filing status, and your state. The calculator above models federal and state AMT, the AMT crossover point, and how the credit recovers in later years for your exact xAI figures.
- Does xAI grant ISOs, NSOs, or RSUs?
- Equity compensation at xAI typically takes the form of incentive stock options (ISOs) and non-qualified stock options (NSOs). Incentive stock options can trigger the alternative minimum tax (AMT) when you exercise.
- Are xAI shares eligible for QSBS?
- They might be. Qualified small business stock (QSBS) under Internal Revenue Code Section 1202 can exclude federal tax on much of the gain when shares were acquired at original issuance from a C-corporation while its gross assets were under $50 million, and held at least five years. Whether your xAI shares qualify turns on when you acquired them and the company's asset size at that time.
One piece of the puzzle.
OptionsAhoy plans your xAI equity alongside hedging, vesting, and de-concentration, across bullish, neutral, and bearish market scenarios. Free during beta.