Oxidative addition of the C – X bond in HCCX ( X = H , CH 3, SiH 3) to RhCl ( PH 3)2, as well as the subsequent 1,3-migration of the substituent X from Rh to the β carbon of the ethynyl group leading to vinylidine-Rh complex, is studied using the localized molecular orbital (LMO) analysis at the density functional theory level. The highest Δ G ‡ values of 20.2, 16.3, and 18.5 kcal/mol are obtained respectively for the endothermic C–H bond oxidative additions of HCCH , HCCCH 3, and HCCSiH 3, which correspond to the slippage of the η2 alkyne complex RhCl (η2- HCCX )( PH 3)2. The 1,3-hydrogen migration, a one step process from Rh(H)(CCX)(Cl) ( PH 3)2 proceeds via a three center transition state involving H ⋯( CC ) interactions with Δ G ‡ values of 18.7, 16.3, and 18.1 kcal/mol for X = H , CH 3, and SiH 3, respectively. The overall nature of the reaction profiles and the LMO features suggest nearly identical behavior for all the C – H bond oxidative additions as well as the 1,3-hydrogen migrations. However, the energy profiles and LMO features of the C – CH 3 and the C – SiH 3 oxidative additions as well as the 1,3-shift of methyl and silyl groups show significant differences. The C – CH 3 oxidative addition is highly endothermic (21.7 kcal/mol) and thermodynamically disfavored as it require a Δ G ‡ of 42.2 kcal/mol. On the other hand, the C – SiH 3 oxidative addition is the least endothermic (6.4 kcal/mol) and it requires a moderate Δ G ‡ of 19.6 kcal/mol. Further, the 1,3-SiH 3 migration is the most favored reaction among all the reactions studied here as it proceed with a Δ G ‡ of 13.3 kcal/mol. The small Δ G ‡ for C – SiH 3 oxidative addition and the 1,3-SiH 3 migration are well explained based on the hypervalent character of silicon atom in the corresponding transition states as evidenced from their geometric and LMO features.