12:18 PM EST, 12/24/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Tech stocks were higher in Wednesday early afternoon trading, with the State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK) rising 0.3% and the State Street SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD) fractionally higher.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor index added 0.2%.

In sector news, fleet management platform Motive Technologies, which is backed by companies including Alphabet (GOOG), has filed for an initial public offering in the US.

In corporate news, Microsoft ( MSFT )-backed (MSFT) OpenAI said Wednesday it is exploring how to incorporate ads in its flagship ChatGPT product. Microsoft ( MSFT ) shares were up 0.4%.

Intel ( INTC ) shares were down 1% after Reuters reported that Nvidia (NVDA) has decided not to proceed with testing of chip production using Intel's ( INTC ) 18A process.

UiPath ( PATH ) shares jumped 8% after the company was selected by S&P Dow Jones Indices for inclusion in the S&P MidCap 400 index, effective Jan. 2.

Snowflake (SNOW) is in talks to buy Observe, a maker of app monitoring tools, for about $1 billion, The Information reported Tuesday. Snowflake shares were shedding 1.7%.