Author here. I wanted to share this piece of personal and technical history from the early days of 3D graphics. The article covers the meeting on my houseboat with Jensen, Curtis, and Chris in 1993, working on biquadratic texture mapping for the NV1, and how Microsoft’s sudden pivot to triangles in DirectX nearly broke the company before their pivot to the RIVA 128. It also digs into the paperwork anomaly I recently uncovered regarding my Technical Advisory Board options and the vesting schedule. Happy to answer any technical questions about the early 90s VR/graphics scene or the NV1 era!

tl;dr

OP was not given all of the shares earned at the time decades ago and didn't realize that they should've been payed out, but after engaging in a lawsuit realized that the court would likely not grant the case give the statute of limitations.

Kinda like all the Sony game 'owners' not carefully reasing the legally binding contracts they're always signing realizing that they are not in fact purchasing a gauranteed lifetime access to the game.

Why does a stockholder have to reassert their rights to hold the stock that they already own?

Seems like you should sell your rights to the suit to a third party for a flat fee and percentage of recovery.

You should sell your right to litigate this. There are hundreds of firms that would pay you to take this on. Would involve near zero effort for you and would also check the box of being “about the principle”.

So the shares he did receive are worth well over $1B too right?

this is like finding your harddrive with 13,000 bitcoin but it's encrypted and you forgot the password

Don’t options expire (ex. Leaving the company)? How would this work thirty years later?

Not sure how to feel about it.

It seems like both you didn't caring about it during vesting or maybe they did a typo since it seems like you were vested over 4 years normally and the offer is over 4 years?

Anyway if someone did this to me this is pretty much grounds for an irreparable relationship. Though I guess it was worth the attempt for $1b.

To satisfy the curious, "I have been everything, and nothing is worth it."

Well quoted.

Way of my league here but if it starts with a B and they said sue them, why not go ahead and sue them?

You’re not the only one who want to see this go somewhere.

Big mistake.

These matters are not purely legal nor purely right and wrong.

They are personal and political too.

This is a fight you should have fought.