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Microsoft Corp. <\/strong>(NASDAQ:MSFT<\/a>) employees leak compensation details through an anonymous spreadsheet as the company battles Meta Platforms Inc.<\/strong> (NASDAQ:META<\/a>) for artificial intelligence talent with multi-million dollar offers<\/a>.<\/p>\n More than 850 Microsoft employees have voluntarily shared salary, bonus and stock compensation data in an anonymous spreadsheet reviewed by Business Insider. The self-reported entries provide insight into pay structures as the tech giant competes aggressively for AI engineering talent.<\/p>\n Trending: The same firms that backed Uber, Venmo and eBay are investing in this pre-IPO company disrupting a $1.8T market \u2014 and you can too at just $2.90\/share.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Business Insider analyzed nearly 300 submissions from U.S.-based software engineers, revealing base salaries ranging from $111,000 to $340,000 depending on experience level and division. The data represents a small sample of Microsoft\u2019s 228,000 global workforce as of June 30.<\/p>\n Cloud + AI division leads average base pay at $204,135, followed by Commerce + Ecosystems at $191,597. The premium reflects Microsoft\u2019s strategic focus on artificial intelligence capabilities, driving record earnings growth.<\/p>\n Stock awards vary significantly by level, with senior engineers (Level 67) receiving $145,000-$252,000 in equity compensation. Cash bonuses range from 8-140% of base salary across different organizational levels.<\/p>\n Microsoft did not immediately respond to\u00a0Benzinga<\/a>‘s request for comment.<\/p>\n See Also: In a $34 Trillion Debt Era, The Right AI Could Be Your Financial Advantage \u2014 Get Your Demo<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Microsoft has implemented new pay guidelines with competitive carve-outs to counter Meta\u2019s aggressive recruitment efforts. The Redmond-based company is pursuing Meta\u2019s AI researchers with multi-million dollar compensation packages, according to BI, which cited internal documents.<\/p>\n Meta recently implemented a hiring freeze in its AI division after offering compensation packages reportedly reaching $100 million to recruit over 50 researchers from competitors, including Microsoft, Alphabet Inc.<\/strong> (NASDAQ:GOOGL<\/a>) (NASDAQ:GOOG<\/a>) and Apple Inc.<\/strong> (NASDAQ:AAPL<\/a>).<\/p>\n Microsoft maintains flat headcount guidance while cutting thousands of positions, indicating continued selective hiring in strategic areas, according to BI. The company\u2019s focus on AI talent acquisition supports its competitive positioning against Meta\u2019s \u201cSuperintelligence Efforts\u201d and broader industry transformation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. Microsoft…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[261],"tags":[291,289,290,1650,15334,15335,18,19,17,5763,305,15336,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-16962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-business-insider","12":"tag-compensation-data","13":"tag-compensation-packages","14":"tag-eire","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-meta-platforms-inc","18":"tag-microsoft","19":"tag-software-company","20":"tag-technology"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}