Sector Update: Tech Stocks Rise Late Afternoon

03:46 PM EDT, 09/04/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Tech stocks were higher late Friday afternoon, with the State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK) rising 0.4% and the State Street SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD) adding 1.9%. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index climbed 2.6%. In sector news, Abu Dhabi's AI firm G42 has held talks over potentially selling a majority stake to US companies, in a bid to secure access to advanced AI chips beyond 2027, Bloomberg reported. G42 will be able to buy AI chips without a US license until around April 2027, but it will need to modify its corporate structure to keep buying those chips, Bloomberg reported, adding that proposals being considered include selling a majority stake to a US firm or establishing a new vehicle in the US. In corporate news, AI cloud computing firm Nscale is looking to sell up to $1.5 billion of convertible notes to a group of investors ahead of its planned initial public offering, Bloomberg reported. The UK-based company is also trying to secure about $2 billion in financing from Nvidia (NVDA), the report said. Separately, Nvidia has increased its equity investments more than ten-fold in the past year to $99 billion, as of July 26, CNBC reported. Nvidia shares were up 0.7%. United Microelectronics (UMC) shares rose 4% after the company reported sales of 25.04 billion New Taiwan dollars ($790.6 million) in August, up 30.71% from a year earlier. Apple's (AAPL) initial production of its long-awaited foldable iPhone is limited to a few hundred units per day, mainly because of stringent quality-control requirements, Nikkei Asia reported. Apple shares were down 2%. Zscaler (ZS) fell 5.4% even as the cloud security company reported fiscal fourth-quarter results above Wall Street's consensus and outlined a strong full-year outlook. The company's guidance is conservative and reflects factors including an expected loss of Red Canary's customers and the competitive AI security environment, Oppenheimer said in a note. UiPath (PATH) shares dropped 16% after the software company released its latest quarterly results late Thursday.