Leaving Shield AI? Plan your 90-day ISO window
Calculator · free · no signup · pre-IPOShield AI is pre-IPO. Left with vested ISOs? Model the 90-day exercise-or-forfeit decision and its AMT cost at any valuation: current 409A or an expected exit price.
Beta · invite-only · AlphaLatitude Inc. · Free Tools
Your grant
Seeded from secondary-market data, as of Jun 11, 2026
Tax inputs
Grant timeline
Recommended exercise quantity
Exercise all 10,000
With 10%/yr expected growth over the 3-yr hold, every share's expected after-tax gain exceeds its marginal AMT cost. Net value: $539,422 at horizon.
Net after-tax value vs. shares exercised
Each point is the expected after-tax NPV at your hold horizon if you exercise that many shares now and let the rest expire.
Year-by-year tax breakdown
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 | 10,000 | |||
| 2 | 0 | |||
| 3 | 0 |
Federal AMT credit
Earned
$445,818
Recovered
$29,764
Remaining
$416,054
The AMT credit only recovers in years where regular tax exceeds AMT — typically a year with no ISO exercise. It carries forward indefinitely (Form 8801) and applies in any future tax year where regular tax exceeds AMT.
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 solved the exercise window. The beta plans what comes after it: the new shares, your remaining equity, hedges, and taxes in one multi-year plan.
Request beta access →About Shield AI
Shield AI is a privately held Aerospace/Defense company, incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in San Diego, CA.
Last reported secondary-market price: $161.13 per share (as of 2026-06-11). Your own 409A may differ.
$5.6B; defense autonomy.
Equity grants at Shield AI typically include incentive stock options (ISOs) and non-qualified stock options (NSOs).
Shield AI, Inc. is an American aerospace and defense technology company based in San Diego, California, United States. It develops artificial intelligence-powered fighter pilots, drones, and technology for defense operations. Its clients include the United States Special Operations Command, US Air Force, US Marine Corps, US Navy and several international militaries. The company’s small-unmanned aircraft system (sUAS) Nova became the first AI-powered drone to be deployed for defense purposes in US military history.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Brothers Brandon Tseng (former Navy SEAL) and Ryan Tseng founded Shield AI with Andrew Reiter in 2015, headquartered in San Diego. The company builds Hivemind, an autonomy stack enabling drones and aircraft to operate without GPS or communications. Its V-BAT VTOL tactical drone sees combat use in Israel, Ukraine, and across NATO members, while the smaller Nova quadcopter handles indoor reconnaissance. In 2024, Hivemind flew an F-16 autonomously. A November 2024 Series F raised $300M at a reported $5.3B+ valuation. Major contracts include the Indian Navy and Israeli forces.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org · shield.ai
Equity comp at Shield AI
- Shield AI explicitly structures all full-time RSU grants with a double-trigger requirement. Because the company is private, RSUs do not settle (and no income tax is owed) until both (1) the time-based schedule is satisfied and (2) a qualifying liquidity event occurs. This defers the tax obligation until employees can sell shares to cover the bill.
- Vesting schedule: 4-year with double-trigger: time-based vesting plus a liquidity event (IPO or acquisition) required before RSUs settle.
Sources: shield.ai
Researched 2026-05-07.
OptionsAhoy is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Shield AI.
If you are leaving Shield AI with vested incentive stock options (ISOs), most stock plans give you 90 days from departure to exercise or forfeit them. The calculator works at any valuation: enter your strike and the current 409A fair market value (FMV) or an expected exit price. It computes your window deadline, the alternative minimum tax (AMT) cost of exercising in full, and the partial-exercise share count that maximizes expected after-tax value.
Example: leaving Shield AI with 5,000 vested ISOs at a $48.34 strike, with the last reported price at $161.13, exercising all of them inside the 90-day window puts a $563,950 bargain element into one tax year. Above the 2026 federal AMT exemption ($88,100 single, $137,000 married joint), the 28% AMT rate adds roughly $157,906 on top of regular tax before any state AMT (CA, CO, CT, MN). Exercising fewer shares lowers that bill at the cost of forfeiting the rest; the calculator above finds the count that maximizes expected after-tax value for your exact figures.
All Shield AI tools → · Use the generic Post-Termination ISO Exercise Calculator for any company.
Shield AI equity questions
- I left Shield AI. How long do I have to exercise my ISOs?
- Most stock plans give you 90 days from your departure date to exercise vested incentive stock options (ISOs); unexercised options are forfeited when the window closes. Tax law is slightly wider: ISO treatment requires you to have been an employee within 3 months of exercise (Internal Revenue Code Section 422(a)(2)), so options exercised under an employer-extended window are taxed as non-qualified stock options (NSOs). Check your grant agreement for Shield AI's exact terms. The calculator above computes your deadline from your departure date, the alternative minimum tax (AMT) cost of exercising, and the share count that maximizes after-tax value.
- Does Shield AI grant ISOs, NSOs, or RSUs?
- Equity compensation at Shield AI 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 Shield AI 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 Shield AI shares qualify turns on when you acquired them and the company's asset size at that time.
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