03:39 PM EDT, 03/21/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Tech stocks rose late Thursday afternoon with the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) up 0.1% and the SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD) climbing 2.5%.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor index added 2.5%.

In corporate news, Microsoft ( MSFT ) will pay Inflection AI $650 million and hire its staff in a licensing deal, Reuters reported Thursday. On Tuesday, Microsoft ( MSFT ) said it named Mustafa Suleyman and Karen Simonyan. co-founders of Inflection AI, as chief executive and chief scientist, respectively, in its new Microsoft AI division. Microsoft ( MSFT ) shares rose 1%.