Tech stocks declined Friday afternoon, with the State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK) falling 1.2% and the State Street SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD) dropping 3.3%. The Philadelphia Semiconductor index slumped 4%.
In sector news, President Donald Trump said Friday on Truth Social that numerous European countries are discussing the imminent implementation of a digital services tax on US companies and warned that any country that proceeds with such a tax will face a 100% US tariff.
Separately, the April release of Anthropic's powerful new Mythos AI model motivated China's DeepSeek to raise $7.4 billion at a valuation of over $50 billion in an effort to compete, The Information reported, citing three people familiar with DeepSeek CEO Liang Wenfeng's thinking.
In corporate news, Onsemi (ON) shares fell 23% after the chipmaker agreed to acquire semiconductor company Synaptics (SYNA) in a deal with an enterprise value of about $7 billion. Synaptics shares rose 0.2%.
Microsoft-backed (MSFT) OpenAI is weighing an initial public offering as early as in 2027 after the expected IPO of rival Amazon.com-backed (AMZN) Anthropic, Bloomberg reported. OpenAI had been targeting a fall listing, more in line with Anthropic's possible October IPO, the report said. Microsoft shares rose 4.7%, and Amazon added 2%.
SpaceX (SPCX) has told investors it is considering launching a Starlink retail mobile service for US consumers, the Financial Times reported. SpaceX shares added 2.3%.