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> doesn’t the stock go back out as grants to employees?

I'd be curious to see a study supporting this claim.

It’s definitely a common thing in publicly traded tech. Those stock grants have to come from somewhere, and simply creating new stock dilutes everyone shares. Though I’m not sure how often it happens.

> stock grants have to come from somewhere, and simply creating new stock dilutes everyone shares

This is how it works. It's why companies report an earnings per share on a fully-diluted basis.

It’s how it often works, but buybacks are an option to avoid diluting share price (issuing stock diluted share price, buying it back does the opposite, though should be neutral).

but debt taken out to fund buybacks is also a form of dilution

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