Groq employees used Equitybee to fund the exercise of their stock options without spending any personal savings. When Nvidia acquired Groq's assets for $20 billion in December 2025, these employees retained $2,930,998 in proceeds, keeping approximately 76% of the upside. Equitybee connects employees with investors who cover the exercise cost; employees repay only if the company has a successful exit.
M&A, December 2025
Groq Acquired by Nvidia
$228,387
$2,930,998
76.08%
Groq was building something ambitious: a chip designed from the ground up for AI inference, competing against Nvidia's GPU dominance. For employees holding stock options, this created a familiar dilemma. Exercising those options required spending thousands of dollars out of pocket, on a bet that the company would eventually reach a liquidity event. As a pre-revenue chip company for much of its history, the outcome was far from certain.
This dilemma is not unique to Groq. But like many startup employees, deciding how and when to exercise stock options isn't always straightforward.
Common considerations employees faced:
• Exercising can require tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars upfront
• Taxes, particularly AMT on ISOs, often create unexpected additional liabilities
• Employees may not want to lock up personal savings in a single illiquid, high-risk asset
• According to Carta, nearly 70% of employees ultimately walk away from their equity
For Groq employees, the combination of an uncertain path to liquidity and substantial exercise costs made Equitybee's non-recourse funding model especially relevant.
Groq employees used Equitybee to fund their stock option exercises between July 2022 and October 2024, securing a total of $228,387 in funding to cover exercise costs.
Here is how it worked for Groq employees:
• No personal cash required to exercise
• No loans, no debt, no personal liability*
• Equitybee investors provided the full exercise capital
• The employee retained their shares and became a full shareholder
• Repayment occurred only after Nvidia's acquisition of Groq
Whether the decision was driven by affordability, risk management, or simply a preference not to deploy personal capital, Equitybee provided a path to ownership without the financial exposure.
*Assumes you comply with the agreement terms.
When Nvidia announced its $20 billion acquisition of Groq on December 26, 2025, these employees were shareholders. Proceeds were distributed on March 25, 2026, at $48.00 per share. Through Equitybee, these employees participated in Groq's acquisition upside without risking any of their own capital.
Groq employees collectively retained $2,930,998 in proceeds from Nvidia's $20 billion acquisition of Groq after using Equitybee to fund the exercise of their stock options, without having spent any of their own savings.
The data above reflects start-up employees that received funding to exercise their stock options through the US subsidiary Equitybee Securities Inc. Equitybee executes private financing contracts( PFCs). PFCs could limit your profits. PFCs are brokered by Equitybee Securities LLC, member FINRA.
$228,387
$3,852,432
$2,930,998
76.08%
Groq is another example: exercising stock options is not just about affordability - it is about timing, risk exposure, liquidity preference, and long-term financial strategy.
Thousands of startup employees have already used Equitybee to fund the exercise of their stock options, including employees at Reddit, SpaceX, Databricks, Klarna, Stripe, Monday.com, Affirm, Rippling, Discord, Wiz, and many others.
As of the date this case study was published, Equitybee has facilitated $317M+ in total capital, created 2,800+ new shareholders, and funded employees across 890+ pre-IPO companies.
Frequently asked questions
Groq employees used Equitybee's non-recourse funding model to cover the full cost of exercising their stock options between July 2022 and October 2024. Equitybee connected them with investors who provided $228,387 in capital, covering exercise prices. The employees retained their shares and became full shareholders, repaying only after Nvidia's acquisition of Groq in December 2025.
Groq employees who exercised their stock options through Equitybee collectively retained $2,930,998 in proceeds from Nvidia's $20 billion acquisition. On average, employees kept 76.08% of the upside from their exercised options. Through Equitybee, these employees participated in Groq's acquisition upside without risking any of their own capital.
Non-recourse stock option funding is a financing model where an investor covers the cost of exercising an employee's stock options. The employee retains their shares and only repays from the proceeds if there is a liquidity event that results in the shares becoming liquid, such as an IPO, acquisition, tender offer, or secondary sale. If no such event occurs, the employee owes nothing. As of the date this case study was published, Equitybee has facilitated this model for employees at over 870 pre-IPO companies.
No. Equitybee uses a non-recourse funding structure, meaning the employee's repayment obligation is tied to a liquidity event that results in the shares becoming liquid - such as an IPO, acquisition, tender offer, or secondary sale. If no such event occurs, the employee does not owe anything. The financial risk of the exercise is borne by the investor, not the employee.
Equitybee can help employees who are still employed as well as those who have left and are within their post-termination exercise window. Many employees face a 90-day deadline to exercise options after leaving a company, and the cost of exercising - often tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars - makes Equitybee's non-recourse model especially valuable in these situations.
As of the date this case study was published, Equitybee's average funding timeline is approximately 14 days from application to capital delivery. In fast-track situations, funding can be completed in as few as 2-3 days. The process is designed to meet time-sensitive deadlines, such as post-termination exercise windows or pending liquidity events.
SourcesNvidia buying AI chip startup Groq's assets for about $20 billion - CNBC
Employee equity statistics - Carta
Fundraising round data - Pitchbook, Inc.