03:51 PM EDT, 03/21/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Tech stocks were higher 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 added 0.9%.

Reddit ( RDDT ) shares debuted on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday at $47, well above their initial public offering price of $34 a share. The shares were surging past 50% in recent trading.

The US Department of Justice and attorneys general from 15 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit Thursday against Apple ( AAPL ) for allegedly violating antitrust laws. Separately, Apple ( AAPL ) and Alphabet's (GOOG) Google ( GOOG ) are set to face the first investigations under the EU's Digital Markets Act, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Apple ( AAPL ) shares fell 4.3% and Alphabet was shedding 0.6%.

Micron Technology's ( MU ) shares soared more than 14% after several analysts raised price targets on the company. The move comes as Micron reported swing to a profit in fiscal Q2, while revenue rose from a year before.