Tech stocks today: Amazon to acquire satellite company Globalstar, OpenAI memo lashes out at rival Anthropic

Tech stocks rose on Tuesday as hopes of deescalation in Iran buoyed markets.

The hostilities in the Middle East have weighed on tech stocks for weeks, clouding the picture of whether investors are pulling back because of the war or because of sentiment toward Big Tech more generally.

Beyond the war, Amazon (AMZN) agreed to acquire satellite company Globalstar (GSAT) for $11.57 billion, which was seen as a direct challenge to SpaceX's (SPAX.PVT) Starlink. Amazon has ambitions to deploy 3,200 satellites in the next three years and launch its own internet service.

Meanwhile, Oracle (ORCL) led a rally in software stocks on Monday, and its shares climbed another 7% on Tuesday after the company expanded its power agreement with Bloom Energy (BE).

News in the artificial intelligence industry took a dark turn over the weekend, as OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) CEO Sam Altman's home was targeted in two apparent attacks, an attempted shooting and a Molotov cocktail attack that caused a fire. No one was injured in either attack.

Altman addressed the Molotov cocktail attack in a blog post on Friday evening, saying, "we should de-escalate the rhetoric" around AI amid rising uncertainty about the technology's power.