Tech stocks were higher Wednesday afternoon, with the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) up 0.8% and the SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD) rising 1.4%.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor index climbed 1.8%.

In corporate news, Alphabet's (GOOG) unit Waymo is offering tests of its fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Austin, Texas. Separately, Alphabet's Google is developing artificial intelligence software with capabilities similar to OpenAI's o1, which is described as having human-like reasoning abilities, Bloomberg reported. Alphabet shares were shedding 1%.

Microsoft (MSFT) plans to invest 4.3 billion euros ($4.75 billion) during the next two years to improve its artificial intelligence infrastructure and cloud capacity in Italy, Reuters reported. Microsoft shares were declining 0.7%.

ALT5 Sigma (ALTS) shares rose 0.5% after the company said Wednesday it plans to separate into two independent public companies, one focused on fintech and the other on biotech.