03:54 PM EDT, 05/08/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Tech stocks were higher late Friday afternoon, with the State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK) rising 3.2% and the State Street SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD) climbing 5.3%.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor index rose 5.2%.

In corporate news, Amazon ( AMZN )-backed (AMZN) Anthropic has signed a $1.8 billion computing deal with Akamai Technologies ( AKAM ) , a cloud services provider, to help meet surging demand for its AI software, Bloomberg reported. Akamai ( AKAM ) shares surged 26%, and Amazon ( AMZN ) added 0.8%.

Apple ( AAPL ) and Intel ( INTC ) have reached a preliminary agreement under which Intel ( INTC ) will make some of the chips powering Apple ( AAPL ) devices, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Apple ( AAPL ) shares rose 2.2%, and Intel ( INTC ) jumped past 13%.

Apple ( AAPL ) and Meta Platforms ( META ) have publicly opposed a Canadian bill that could require them to break the encryption of their devices and services, Reuters reported. Canada's ruling Liberal Party proposed Bill C-22, which law enforcement officials claim would help them probe security threats earlier and take immediate action, the report said. Meta was down 1.1%.

Hedge fund TCI cut its stake in Microsoft ( MSFT ) to 1% of its portfolio at the end of March from 10% at the end of last year, the Financial Times reported. Microsoft ( MSFT ) shares shed 1.5%.