03:53 PM EDT, 09/27/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Tech stocks were lower late Friday afternoon, with the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) falling 1% and the SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD) shedding 0.4%.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor index dropped 1.9%.

In corporate news, Chinese officials have been discouraging local companies from buying Nvidia's ( NVDA ) H20 chips, instead urging them to purchase locally produced AI chips, Bloomberg reported Friday. Nvidia ( NVDA ) shares were falling 2.7%.

Arm (ARM) approached Intel ( INTC ) about buying its struggling product division, but Intel ( INTC ) stated it's not for sale, Bloomberg reported. Separately, Intel ( INTC ) and the US government are on track to finalize their $8.5 billion funding agreement before the end of the year, the Financial Times reported. Intel ( INTC ) shares were shedding 0.6%, and Arm was down 2.7%.

Meta's (META) Irish unit was fined by the Irish Data Protection Commission 91 million euros ($101.6 million) for violations of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation following a probe of inadvertent storage of social media user passwords in plaintext on the company's internal systems. Meta shares shed 0.2%.

Microsoft ( MSFT )-backed (MSFT) OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman told an all-hands meeting that recent media reports suggesting he will receive a large "equity stake" in the artificial intelligence company are "just not true," CNBC reported late Thursday. Microsoft ( MSFT ) shares were down 0.7%.