Nvidia (NVDA) RSU sell-vs-hold
Calculator · free · no signup · NVDASell at vest or hold? Compare after-tax payout from selling Nvidia RSUs at vest vs. holding through the LTCG cliff at 12 months.
Beta · invite-only · AlphaLatitude Inc. · Free Tools
Your vest
Tax inputs
Hold strategy
Best after-tax payout — at year 1 yr
$47,709
Sell + invest wins by $4,981 over Hold 1 yr.
Estimates only. Not financial advice.
Heads-up: under-withholding. Your employer withholds federal tax at the IRS supplemental rate (22.0% on this vest, ≈ $17,600). Your marginal federal rate on this vest is 32.7%, owing $26,171. Expect to settle the $8,571 gap at tax time.
The hidden purchase
Tax was paid at vest either way. Holding is mathematically equivalent to taking $44,509 in after-tax cash and buying $44,509 of NVDA today.
Most diversification frameworks would advise against a purchase that size in a single name; the right answer depends on your conviction in NVDA. Holding past one year converts the gain to LTCG.
Sell + invest
Best payout| Vest value (shares × price) | $80,000 |
| Federal | |
| State | |
| Medicare | −$1,160 |
| Additional Medicare | −$720 |
| Market gain over 1 yr at 10.0% | $4,451 |
| Cap-gain tax on diversified gain — LTCG (federal + state + NIIT) | −$1,251 |
| Net at year 1 yr | $47,709 |
Sell every share at vest; invest the after-tax cash at the market return for 1 yr, then liquidate. Diversified — no single-stock concentration risk.
Hold 1 yr
| Vest value (shares × price) | $80,000 |
| Vest tax (federal + state + FICA) | |
| Net at year 1 yr | $42,728 |
Sold 444 shares to cover vest tax (net-settled); kept 556 shares 1 yr to qualify for long-term capital gains.
Social Security + Medicare are payroll taxes (collectively called FICA) — they apply because you're still employed at vest.
Both columns are stated in year-1 yr dollars. The sell side compounds at the market return; the hold side compounds at your single-stock expected return after a 20% volatility drag.
Estimates only. Assumes net-settled (sell-to-cover) vesting; double-trigger and pre-IPO RSUs are out of scope. Excludes multi-state moves, AMT interactions on other equity, and 83(b) elections. Not financial advice.
You evaluated one RSU vest. The beta plans every vest of every grant across years, with concentration and AMT in the loop.
Request beta access →About Nvidia
Nvidia (NVDA) is a public Semiconductors company, incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in Santa Clara, CA. IPO'd Jan 22, 1999.
Last close: $207.41 per share (as of 2026-06-17).
Equity grants at Nvidia typically include restricted stock units (RSUs).
Nvidia Corporation is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The company develops graphics processing units (GPUs), systems on chips (SoCs), and application programming interfaces (APIs) for data science, high-performance computing, AI, and mobile and automotive applications. Founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem, Nvidia has been widely described as a Big Tech company.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem sketched the company at a Denny's booth in 1993, betting that dedicated graphics silicon would reshape computing. From Santa Clara headquarters, the firm now ships GeForce and RTX GPUs for gaming, Quadro for workstations, and the A100, H100, H200, and Blackwell B100/B200 accelerators powering modern AI infrastructure, with Rubin on deck. CUDA locks in developer mindshare; the 2020 Mellanox acquisition added networking; AI Enterprise wraps the stack for datacenters. Listed on NASDAQ since January 1999, the company touched roughly $3-4T in 2024-2025 and closed FY2025 near $130B in revenue.
Sources: nvidia.com · en.wikipedia.org
Equity comp at Nvidia
- RSUs use single-trigger vesting: shares become yours as each portion vests on schedule, and the value is taxed as ordinary income at that point. No IPO or acquisition is required.
Researched 2026-05-07.
OptionsAhoy is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Nvidia.
Nvidia (NVDA) RSUs vest as ordinary income at the price on vest day. The decision is whether to sell at vest and reinvest, or hold the shares through the 12-month LTCG cliff. This calculator runs both paths through the same after-tax math so you can compare like-for-like.
Example: 500 Nvidia (NVDA) RSUs vesting at $207.41 per share is $103,705 of ordinary income on vest day. After roughly 32% combined federal + state + FICA (~$33,186), the post-tax share value is ~$70,519. Holding 12 months for long-term capital-gains treatment then only matters for the price change between vest and sale; the ordinary income at vest is already locked in. The calculator runs both paths through the same after-tax math.
All Nvidia tools → · Use the generic RSU Sell-vs-Hold Calculator for any company.
Nvidia equity questions
- Should I sell or hold my Nvidia RSUs at vest?
- Nvidia restricted stock units (RSUs) are taxed as ordinary income on their value at vest whether or not you sell. The only open decision is what to do with the shares afterward: sell at vest and reinvest, or hold past twelve months for long-term capital-gains treatment on any further gain. The calculator above runs both paths through the same after-tax math so you can compare them directly.
- Does Nvidia grant ISOs, NSOs, or RSUs?
- Equity compensation at Nvidia typically takes the form of restricted stock units (RSUs). Restricted stock units are taxed as ordinary income when they vest.
- Do Nvidia RSUs use double-trigger vesting?
- No. Nvidia restricted stock units (RSUs) use single-trigger vesting: each tranche becomes yours as it vests on schedule, taxed as ordinary income at that point, with no liquidity event required.
One piece of the puzzle.
OptionsAhoy plans your Nvidia equity alongside hedging, vesting, and de-concentration, across bullish, neutral, and bearish market scenarios. Free during beta.