Techie called ‘money-minded’ by CEO for asking salary hike after cutting down AI costs by 95%. 'You broke the manager's heart'

Salary negotiations are a routine part of working life, particularly in the technology industry where employees are often judged by the impact they create. While discussions about pay raises are expected in most workplaces, they do not always end on good terms. A recent Reddit post has led to a discussion after a young AI engineering intern claimed he was fired shortly after asking for a salary revision that had allegedly been promised when he joined the company.

The Reddit user said he was working as an AI Engineer intern at a six-member startup. According to him, the company consisted largely of sales staff, while the technical side was handled by him, a backend developer and the founder. He claimed that he joined on a low stipend for a six-month internship and was assured that his compensation would be reviewed after three months based on performance.

Intern claims he built key AI infrastructure

In his post, the student described taking on significant responsibilities during his internship despite receiving little guidance. He said he built the company's Small Language Model (SLM) infrastructure from the ground up, deployed AI agents, optimized latency and helped reduce the startup's dependence on expensive GPT-based APIs.


The intern further claimed that his work reduced inference costs by around 95%. He also said the AI systems he helped develop contributed to bringing in more than seven clients for the company.

Believing that these achievements justified a higher stipend, he decided to bring up the compensation review that had been discussed during onboarding.

Message that triggered the controversy

The student shared the message he sent to his manager while requesting a salary revision.

The message read: "Hello mam, so I have completed 3 months now and I wanted to bring up the stipend revision that was mentioned during onboarding. Over the last 3 months, I’ve built, tested, and deployed SLM agents, worked on latency optimization, and benchmarked various models. The SLM setup we moved to production cut API costs by around 95% compared to GPT. We processed 2000+ requests and 3.3M tokens for literally $0.19 total without any quality degradation, and the SLM agents are also successfully bringing in clients. Considering all of this, I was expecting something around the (xxxx)range, though I’m open to discussing it further."

According to the intern, the figure he suggested was intentionally high because he expected a negotiation process. He maintained that he was open to discussing a lower amount and believed the conversation would eventually lead to a mutually acceptable middle ground.

‘Mismatch in expectations’ leads to dismissal

Instead of a negotiation, the student alleged that the discussion took an unexpected turn. He claimed his manager became defensive and argued that such a large hike was unrealistic for a student intern.

The Reddit user further said that some of his contributions were dismissed as work related to "test campaigns and test clients" rather than production-level projects. He also alleged that his ability to work independently was framed negatively rather than being viewed as initiative.

Soon afterward, the internship was reportedly paused. A few days later, he received an email informing him that the internship had been concluded due to what the company described as a "mismatch in expectations."

The student said he was surprised by the outcome because he would have been willing to accept a smaller raise had the company simply entered into a discussion rather than ending the internship altogether.

CEO reportedly calls him ‘money-minded’

The situation did not end there. According to the intern, he was later invited to a meeting with the startup's CEO.

During the conversation, the student claimed the CEO spent around 30 minutes discussing startup culture and criticized the tone of the salary request. The Reddit user alleged that the CEO described him as "money-minded" and said he had "broke the manager's heart" because the message sounded too authoritative.

The student said he was also told that if he wished to continue at the company, he would first need to convince the manager to allow him back.

Although he later sent what he described as a professional apology to clear up any misunderstanding, he claimed the manager did not respond. At that point, he decided he would rather obtain his experience certificate and move on instead of trying to return.

Reddit users support the intern

The post quickly attracted hundreds of comments, with many users expressing support for the student and arguing that requesting better compensation is a normal business discussion.

One commenter wrote, "Don't be a servant of people. If you feel you deserve just ask for it. They will be making profits and you deserve a cut. These times will come and go, but you gotta learn to understand that you are not a world saviour. You are a person who studies hard to earn money."

Another user encouraged him to look ahead, writing, "Dude chill, always set your standards high, don’t let anyone downplay you. If they lost you, it’s their loss. Move forward with your knowledge. Try outside, you still have time and you are young."

Several users appeared particularly surprised by the CEO's reported comments. One commenter joked, "Who uses broke the heart for salary hike message."

Another simply advised, "Just collect your experience letter and walk away."