Appen Ltd (ASX: APX) shares are having a strong session on Tuesday.
The Appen share price is currently up 6.58% to $1.215, after closing yesterday at $1.14.
That takes the artificial intelligence (AI) data company's gains to around 15% over the past week and more than 50% in 2026.
There doesn't appear to be any new price-sensitive announcements from Appen today.
Instead, its shares look to be getting a lift from a big day across the tech sector.
So, let's take a closer look.
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Tech stocks rally
The S&P/ASX All Technology Index (ASX: XTX) is one of the best-performing areas of the market today, climbing around 2.2%.
That's well ahead of the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO), which is trading basically flat at the time of writing.
Several big-name tech shares are also pushing higher, adding to the positive mood across the sector.
Appen's exposure to AI could also be helping, particularly after another solid session for tech stocks in the US overnight.
But it's also worth remembering that Appen shares can move around quite a bit.
The stock jumped more than 7% on 22 September and another 8% the following day, before giving back some of those gains later in the week.
What's happening at Appen?
Away from today's share price move, things have also been looking a bit better at Appen lately.
The company reported revenue of US$119.9 million for the first half, up 17.5% from a year earlier.
Underlying EBITDA before foreign exchange also improved by US$7.5 million to US$5.3 million.
China continues to do most of the heavy lifting.
Revenue from Appen China jumped 80.4% to US$76.2 million, helped by continued demand for AI-related data services.
The Global business hasn't been as impressive, although things improved in the June quarter.
Revenue came in at US$23.8 million, up 20% from the March quarter.
Appen is still expecting FY26 revenue of between US$270 million and US$300 million.
It is also targeting an underlying EBITDA margin before foreign exchange of around 5% to 10%.
Where to from here?
After climbing more than 50% this year, Appen shares have certainly had a much better run in 2026.
And today's 6% jump adds to what has already been a pretty good September.
For me, the next test will be whether Appen can deliver on its FY26 guidance and keep the recent improvement going.
There's still a long way to go before the company returns to the levels seen a few years ago.
