Plan your Chaos Industries NSO exercise
Calculator · free · no signup · pre-IPOChaos Industries is pre-IPO. Plan your NSO exercise tax (federal, state, FICA) at any expected valuation.
Beta · invite-only · AlphaLatitude Inc. · Free Tools
Your grant
Seeded from secondary-market data, as of Jun 6, 2026
Tax inputs
Hold strategy
Best after-tax payout — at year 1
$343,825
Sell + invest wins by $160,409 over Hold 1 yr.
Estimates only. Not financial advice.
Sell + invest
Best payout| Bargain element (sale − strike) | $621,550 |
| Federal | |
| State | |
| Medicare | −$9,012 |
| Additional Medicare | −$5,594 |
| Market gain over 1 yr at 10.0% | $32,076 |
| LTCG on diversified gain (fed + state + NIIT) | −$9,013 |
| Net at year 1 | $343,825 |
Sell every share immediately; invest the after-tax cash at the market return for 1 yr, then liquidate. Diversified — no single-stock concentration risk.
Exercise + hold 1 yr
| Sale proceeds (year 1) | |
| LTCG tax (federal + state + NIIT) | $0 |
| Net at year 1 | $183,416 |
Sold 2,612 shares at exercise to cover strike + tax; 2,388 shares held 1 yr for LTCG.
Social Security + Medicare are payroll taxes (collectively called FICA) — they apply because you're exercising as a current employee.
Both columns are stated in year-1 dollars: sell-now proceeds compound at the market return and pay LTCG on the gain at year 1; any cash paid out of pocket on the hold side carries the same opportunity cost.
Net at year N — by hold period
Estimates only. Excludes AMT (NSOs do not trigger AMT), state-AMT, multi-state moves, and disqualifying-disposition edge cases. Not financial advice.
You calculated one NSO decision. The beta plans NSOs alongside RSUs and ISOs in a single multi-year tax plan.
Request beta access →About Chaos Industries
Chaos Industries is a privately held Aerospace/Defense company, headquartered in Los Angeles, CA.
Last reported secondary-market price: $134.31 per share (as of 2026-06-06). Your own 409A may differ.
$4.5B; defense electronics.
Equity grants at Chaos Industries typically include incentive stock options (ISOs) and non-qualified stock options (NSOs).
CHAOS Industries, founded in 2022 by John Tenet, Dr. Bo Marr, Gavin Hood, and Brett Cummings, veterans of Epirus, Raytheon, Palantir, and 8VC, develops coherent distributed sensor and effector networks for national security missions. Its flagship product, Vanquish, is a dual-use multistatic radar for tracking drones, missiles, and aircraft. The company raised $275 million in a Series C in May 2025 and $510 million in a Series D led by Valor Equity Partners, reaching a $4.5 billion valuation and more than $1 billion in total funding.
Sources: chaosinc.com · businesswire.com
Equity comp at Chaos Industries
- Defense contractor: most roles require US citizenship and security clearance, which gates equity grant eligibility for foreign nationals due to ITAR restrictions on USML technical-data access. Recent funding rounds have repriced employee options upward, creating standard 409A-driven AMT exposure on ISO exercises.
Sources: chaosindustries.com
Researched 2026-05-11.
OptionsAhoy is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Chaos Industries.
Chaos Industries NSO exercise creates ordinary income on the bargain element (federal, state, and FICA) at the price on the day you exercise. The calculator works at any valuation, so you can model your exercise cost at the current 409A FMV, an expected IPO price, or post-IPO scenarios.
Example: at Chaos Industries's last reported price of $134.31, exercising 5,000 NSOs with a $40.29 strike creates a $470,100 bargain element, taxed as ordinary income on the day you exercise. Combined federal + state + FICA on that bargain typically lands between $126,927 and $211,545 depending on your bracket and state. The calculator above computes the exact figure for your situation and compares selling now vs. holding through the long-term capital-gains threshold.
All Chaos Industries tools → · Use the generic NSO Exercise Calculator for any company.
Chaos Industries equity questions
- How is a Chaos Industries NSO exercise taxed?
- Exercising a non-qualified stock option (NSO) creates ordinary income on the bargain element (the price on the day you exercise minus your strike), subject to federal income tax, state income tax, and FICA. The calculator above computes that tax for your Chaos Industries grant and compares selling the shares now against holding past the one-year mark for long-term capital-gains treatment.
- Does Chaos Industries grant ISOs, NSOs, or RSUs?
- Equity compensation at Chaos Industries 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 Chaos Industries 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 Chaos Industries 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 Chaos Industries equity alongside hedging, vesting, and de-concentration, across bullish, neutral, and bearish market scenarios. Free during beta.