Tech stocks were higher late Thursday afternoon, with the State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK) rising 3.1% and the State Street SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD) climbing 6%.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor index jumped 6.9%.
In corporate news, Applied Materials (AMAT) shares jumped past 10% after the company said it has expanded its manufacturing and R&D operations in Singapore with a $500 million facility in Tampines to support AI-driven semiconductor demand.
Amazon-backed (AMZN) Anthropic signed over a dozen initial agreements to lease data center facilities from US developers, and the AI company has privately discussed a plan to have Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google provide a financial guarantee for its lease payments, The Information reported. Amazon shares rose 1%, and Alphabet was fractionally lower.
Oracle (ORCL) shares fell 9.2% after the company said it plans to raise about $40 billion via debt and equity issuances in fiscal 2027, including its previously announced $20 billion stock sale.
IBM (IBM) and ServiceNow (NOW) said Thursday they have expanded their collaboration to help enterprises modernize legacy data and accelerate the use of AI. IBM shares added 0.9%, and ServiceNow was down 2.4%.