Plan your Varda Space NSO exercise
Calculator · free · no signup · pre-IPOVarda Space 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
$103,761
Hold 1 yr wins by $59,312 over Sell + invest.
Estimates only. Not financial advice.
Sell + invest
| Bargain element (sale − strike) | $74,300 |
| Federal | |
| State | |
| Medicare | −$1,077 |
| Additional Medicare | −$669 |
| Market gain over 1 yr at 10.0% | $4,147 |
| LTCG on diversified gain (fed + state + NIIT) | −$1,165 |
| Net at year 1 | $44,449 |
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
Best payout| Sale proceeds (year 1) | |
| LTCG tax (federal + state + NIIT) | −$24,345 |
| Net at year 1 | $103,761 |
Sold 3,332 shares at exercise to cover strike + tax; 1,668 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 Varda Space
Varda Space is a privately held Aerospace/Defense company, headquartered in El Segundo, CA.
Last reported secondary-market price: $24.86 per share (as of 2026-06-06). Your own 409A may differ.
In-space manufacturing.
Equity grants at Varda Space typically include incentive stock options (ISOs) and non-qualified stock options (NSOs).
Varda Space Industries, Inc is an American privately held space research company headquartered in El Segundo, California. Founded in January 2021, the company designs, builds, and flies spacecraft that process pharmaceuticals in microgravity. The company targets small molecule crystallization, which is difficult to produce in Earth's gravity, and brings those crystals back to Earth with their atmospheric reentry vehicle. Investors in the company include venture capitalists such as Khosla Ventures and Peter Thiel's Founders Fund.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Founded in 2020 by Will Bruey (ex-SpaceX) and Founders Fund partner Delian Asparouhov, Varda Space Industries operates from El Segundo, California, producing pharmaceuticals in microgravity and flying hypersonic re-entry capsules under its W-Series platform. The W-1 capsule returned ritonavir crystals to Utah in 2024, and W-2 launched on SpaceX Transporter-12 in January 2025, landing at Koonibba, Australia in February with an AFRL plasma spectrometer. DoD hypersonic test contracts complement commercial drug work. A $187M Series C in July 2025 lifted total funding to roughly $329M.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org · spacenews.com
OptionsAhoy is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Varda Space.
Varda Space 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 Varda Space's last reported price of $24.86, exercising 5,000 NSOs with a $7.46 strike creates a $87,000 bargain element, taxed as ordinary income on the day you exercise. Combined federal + state + FICA on that bargain typically lands between $23,490 and $39,150 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 Varda Space tools → · Use the generic NSO Exercise Calculator for any company.
Varda Space equity questions
- How is a Varda Space 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 Varda Space grant and compares selling the shares now against holding past the one-year mark for long-term capital-gains treatment.
- Does Varda Space grant ISOs, NSOs, or RSUs?
- Equity compensation at Varda Space 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 Varda Space 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 Varda Space 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 Varda Space equity alongside hedging, vesting, and de-concentration, across bullish, neutral, and bearish market scenarios. Free during beta.