US equity indexes rose after midday on Wednesday as technology and communication services topped sector charts after Netflix (NFLX) released blowout Q4 results and President Donald Trump unveiled a multi-billion dollar artificial intelligence infrastructure project.

The Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.4% to 20,027.1, with the S&P 500 up 0.8% to 6,095.2 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.2% higher at 44,128.5, extending Monday's gains. Real estate and utilities led the decliners intraday.

Microsoft (MSFT) said late Tuesday that it partnered with OpenAI to cooperate on Stargate, a project unveiled by President Donald Trump a day after his inauguration. The Microsoft announcement comes after OpenAI said Tuesday it will be an equity funder in a new company called The Stargate Project along with Oracle (ORCL), SoftBank, and MGX with plans to "invest $500 billion over the next four years building new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States."

Arm Holdings (ARM) is one of the technology partners in the project, OpenAI said. Shares of Arm surged 14% intraday, the second-highest return on the Nasdaq.

Of the top five performers intraday among mega-caps defined as firms with a market capitalization of more than $200 billion three were Oracle, Microsoft, and Netflix. The streaming giant's shares soared 11% intraday, among the top gainers on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, after it reported overnight subscriber growth and earnings that beat analysts' expectations.

In US economic news, the Conference Board's measure of leading indicators fell by 0.1% in December, as expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg, and an upwardly revised 0.4% increase in November.

Most US Treasury yields rose, with the benchmark 10-year climbing 2.7 basis points to 4.6% and the two-year rising 1.4 basis points to 4.3%.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures rose 0.2% to $75.96 a barrel intraday.