Tech stocks were higher Friday afternoon, with the State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK) rising 0.5% and the State Street SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD) adding 2.3%.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index climbed 2.8%.

In sector news, Abu Dhabi's AI firm G42 has held talks over potentially selling a majority stake to US companies, in a bid to secure access to advanced AI chips beyond 2027, Bloomberg reported. G42 will be able to buy AI chips without a US license until around April 2027, but it will need to modify its corporate structure to keep buying those chips, Bloomberg reported, adding that proposals being considered include selling a majority stake to a US firm or establishing a new vehicle in the US.

In corporate news, Nvidia (NVDA) has increased its equity investments more than ten-fold in the past year to $99 billion, as of July 26, CNBC reported. The company's equity investments last year totaled $7 billion and about $2.2 billion two years earlier, the report said. Nvidia shares were up 0.9%.

DocuSign (DOCU) shares gained 2.7%. The company reported fiscal Q2 non-GAAP net income late Thursday of $1.16 per diluted share, up from $0.92 a year earlier. Analysts polled by FactSet expected $1.09.

Apple's (AAPL) initial production of its long-awaited foldable iPhone is limited to a few hundred units per day, mainly because of stringent quality-control requirements, Nikkei Asia reported. Apple shares were down 2.2%.