Anduril Just Started a $1 Billion Tax Clock, Employees Have Until July 24
Anduril announced one of the most consequential equity changes in its history moving to a “single trigger” structure for RSUs. Historically, RSU holders needed two things to happen before their equity became sellable stock: time based vesting and a liquidity event like an IPO. Anduril just eliminated the second requirement. Vested RSUs will now settle into common stock automatically, with the first tranche converting on August 5, regardless of when or whether the company eventually goes public.
On its face, this is good news. Nearly 80% of Andurilians hold only RSUs, and until now, that group had no path to liquidity ahead of an IPO that has no indications of coming imminently. Removing the liquidity trigger gives every equity holder, RSU or option, the same access to future company tenders.
But settlement is a taxable event, and taxable events come with a bill from Uncle Sam. When RSUs convert to common stock on August 5, the IRS treats it the same as if the value had been paid out in cash. Across Anduril’s full RSU holder base, that bill will likely exceed $1 billion. Employees now have a short window to act as cash payments are due by July 24th or they stand to lose half of their equity. Anduril is giving employees two options:
- Share withholding. Anduril withholds a portion of the newly settled shares to cover the tax bill automatically. No cash required, but fewer shares end up in the employee’s account. At a rough 38% withholding rate, an employee whose RSUs settle into 100 shares keeps only 62.
- Cash payment. Employees who fund the tax bill with cash keep every share that settles.
This is the part that matters for anyone bullish on Anduril. Employees who let the company withhold shares to cover taxes are effectively selling a chunk of their equity back to the company at exactly the moment its value is being set for tax purposes, often 40% to 50% of what settles. For employees who believe Anduril’s valuation has real room to run, that is a meaningful amount of long-term upside given away simply because they did not have the cash on hand in July.
THE CLOCK
Cash payments are due July 24. The first RSU tranche settles August 5. Share withholding can cost employees 40–50% of what settles.
COMPANY OF THE WEEK
Anduril, of course!
Anduril has built its moat by inverting the traditional defense-contracting playbook: instead of waiting for government requirements and billing cost-plus, it self-funds R&D with venture capital, builds hardware and software ahead of demand, and sells finished, fixed-price products the way a consumer tech company would, an approach it calls “software-defined” or “phasing-as-a-service,” where systems like its Lattice command-and-control platform, autonomous drones, and counter-UAS towers get continuously upgraded rather than replaced every procurement cycle. This is reinforced by aggressive vertical integration (in-house sensors, propulsion, edge computing, and now space-tracking via acquisitions like AIRS, Klas, and ExoAnalytic) and hyperscale manufacturing bets like the Arsenal-1 facility in Ohio, which let it deliver systems in a fraction of the 10-15 year timelines typical of legacy primes. That speed, tech and cost advantage has translated into scale with ~$2.1 billion in revenue in 2025, up 110% from 2024, and is rumored to be well exceeding its $4.3 billion projection for 2026. The U.S. Air Force continues to show its Anduril support, while the U.S. Army in March 2026 awarded it a 10-year enterprise agreement worth up to $20 billion, consolidating more than 120 separate legacy procurement actions into a single framework — a scale of contract consolidation historically reserved for incumbents like Lockheed Martin or Raytheon.
A company does not build a $1 billion tax event for its workforce by accident. It builds one because thousands of employees have spent years accumulating equity in a business that has scaled dramatically, and the company is now mature enough to start giving that equity real liquidity mechanics ahead of what will be a much anticipated IPO. If you know or work with Anduril RSU holders who are bullish on the company but tight on cash ahead of the July 24 deadline, now is the time to connect us.