AMD is buying World Labs. What the months before close decide for the people who built it.

• Announced September 28, 2026 by AMD.
• Consideration: all stock, valued at approximately $8.2 billion.
• Expected close, as AMD stated at announcement: by the end of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.
• AMD said Fei-Fei Li, World Labs co-founder and CEO, will join AMD after the close as executive vice president and chief scientist, reporting to AMD CEO Lisa Su.
• AMD said the World Labs team will continue to focus on advancing AI model research after the close.
• World Labs is a private company. AMD’s announcement and its Form 8-K do not describe how employee options, RSUs and unvested awards will be treated.

Source: AMD newsroom, September 28, 2026, and AMD’s Form 8-K filed the same day. We have no relationship with either company and no non-public information. The terms and dates above come from the announcement and filing named here, as of the facts-checked date. They can change before close, so confirm the treatment of your own awards with HR before you act.

In an all-stock deal, the price is paid in AMD shares, not cash. AMD’s September 28, 2026 SEC filing said the number of shares was not set yet. It is to be based on AMD’s average share price over the ten trading days ending two trading days before close. The same filing says AMD intends to issue the shares without SEC registration, so ask when yours can be resold.

The merger agreement and your grant documents decide what happens to unvested awards: assumed and kept vesting in AMD stock, accelerated, or cancelled and replaced. Retention packages are usually offered alongside, and they come with terms.

The day after close, most of your net worth may sit in one public stock, AMD, with trading windows and a tax bill you have not faced before. That is the part almost nobody plans for in advance.

1. What happens to my unvested options and RSUs at close: assumed, accelerated, or cancelled and replaced?
2. What is the exchange ratio, and is it fixed or does it move with AMD’s share price before close?
3. Do my RSUs have a double trigger (time plus a liquidity event), does this deal satisfy it, and what gets withheld in AMD shares when they settle?
4. If I hold ISOs, are they being assumed in a way that keeps ISO treatment, and what would exercising before close do to my AMT?
5. Do my founder or early-employee shares qualify as QSBS, and have I held them long enough? Shares acquired on or before July 4, 2025 need more than five years. For shares acquired after that date, three years earns a 50% exclusion, four years 75% and five years 100%. How does a stock-for-stock exchange affect the exclusion? (California does not follow the federal QSBS exclusion.)
6. Is any part of the consideration held back in escrow or subject to indemnity claims, and for how long?
7. Am I being offered a retention package, what does it vest on, and what am I agreeing to by signing it: a non-compete, a release, a change to my acceleration?
8. Could the golden parachute rules (Section 280G) reach me, and is the company running the private-company shareholder vote that can clear them?
9. What will withholding look like at close and at each vesting date after, and is it enough for my actual bracket?
10. After close, when am I allowed to sell AMD shares, and what does a selling schedule look like if I am subject to AMD’s trading windows?
11. How much of my net worth will be in one stock the day after close, and what is my plan to bring that down on a schedule instead of a feeling?
12. What happens if the deal does not close, and what would I do then?

Nobody at your company is paid to answer these for you. HR will tell you the mechanics. Your CPA will handle the return. The person who puts it all on one page, in the order it matters, is usually missing. That is the gap we fill.