Overview
- Business Insider published the spreadsheet on Monday, August 24, after reviewing nearly 600 voluntary entries that list base pay, raises, cash bonuses, and stock awards.
- About 350 contributors also self-reported an "AI $ Usage Per Month" metric tied to an internal tracking tool, with a median of roughly $300 over 28 days and a top reported figure of $28,000.
- A Microsoft spokesperson said the AI usage tracker is still in early testing, and Business Insider found no meaningful link between higher reported AI spending and bigger raises, bonuses, or promotions in the sample.
- The submissions show stock awards often outsize annual raises and cash bonuses, underlining equity grants as a primary lever for recruiting and holding AI and cloud talent.
- The dataset is voluntary and small compared with Microsoft's roughly 223,000 employees, and Business Insider removed anomalous or sparse entries to reduce error, so the results do not represent the full company and should be treated as a limited snapshot.