03:57 PM EDT, 03/12/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Tech stocks were lower late Thursday afternoon, with the State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK) falling 1.8% and the State Street SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD) dropping 3.6%.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor index slumped 3.5%.

In corporate news, Voyager Technologies ( VOYG ) plans to develop a 140,000 square-foot facility in Long Beach, California, known as Space Beach, to meet demand across civil, national security, and commercial space missions. Voyager shares were down 4.4%.

Meta (META), Alphabet's (GOOGL) YouTube, Snap (SNAP) and TikTok are being urged by UK's media and privacy regulators to tighten age verification and block underage users from their platforms, Reuters reported. Meta shares fell 2.5%, Alphabet was down 1.6%, and Snap shed 4%.

The US Department of Defense may continue to use Amazon ( AMZN )-backed (AMZN) Anthropic's AI tools beyond the previously planned six-month phase-out if deemed critical to national security, Reuters reported, citing an internal memo. Separately, Amazon's ( AMZN ) European unit and four of its managers could face trial over alleged tax evasion worth about 1.2 billion euros ($1.38 billion), Reuters reported. Amazon ( AMZN ) shares were down 1.3%.

Dell (DELL) CEO Michael Dell believe companies can't dictate how government agencies use their technology, Bloomberg reported. The executive was responding to a question in a Bloomberg TV interview about Anthropic's dispute with the US Defense Department over the use of its AI systems in surveillance or autonomous weapons, the report said. Dell shares rose 1.4%.