New York | EcoPulse24

Shares of Getty Images Holdings Inc. surged about 200% in premarket trading on Monday after the photography company announced a licensing agreement with OpenAI, marking a dramatic turnaround for a business that had been viewed as one of the potential losers of the artificial intelligence revolution.

Getty said on Sunday that images from its vast content library will appear in the search and discovery features of ChatGPT.

The companies did not disclose financial terms of the agreement and provided no details on whether Getty's images would be used to train future OpenAI models.

The sharp rally follows a difficult year for Getty shares, which had fallen approximately 55% in 2026 and closed at just 61 cents on Friday.

A Major Reversal for Getty

The deal represents a significant strategic shift for Getty.

The stock-photo company had faced mounting investor concerns that generative artificial intelligence platforms could fundamentally disrupt its business model by enabling users to create realistic images without licensing traditional photography.

Getty initially resisted the technology's rise. The company developed its own AI image generator and previously filed a lawsuit against Stability AI, alleging that its images had been used without authorization.

The latest agreement with OpenAI therefore marks a notable change from confrontation toward collaboration.

OpenAI Continues Expanding Beyond Chatbots

The agreement is also the latest example of OpenAI's broader strategy of signing licensing partnerships with publishers and media companies.

Bloomberg noted that OpenAI has entered multiple agreements with news organizations and media firms as the company expands into areas including search, video creation and advertising.

Integrating Getty's image library into ChatGPT's search and discovery capabilities further strengthens the platform's position as a destination for information and multimedia content rather than simply a conversational AI tool.

Getty Still Faces Major Challenges

Despite Monday's rally, Getty remains under pressure.

In May, the company reported first-quarter sales that missed analysts' expectations.

Getty is also awaiting regulatory approval for its proposed $3.7 billion acquisition of Shutterstock Inc., a deal that would significantly reshape the stock-image industry.

EcoPulse24 Analysis | The AI Industry Is Moving From Scraping to Licensing

The market reaction reflects something bigger than a single corporate agreement.

For much of the past two years, investors viewed generative AI as an existential threat to companies whose business models depended on licensing content.

Getty became one of the clearest examples of that concern. Why would customers pay for stock images if artificial intelligence could simply generate pictures on demand?

Monday's announcement suggests a more nuanced future may be emerging.

Rather than replacing content owners entirely, major AI companies are increasingly entering commercial agreements with publishers, creators and content repositories.

This licensing model may offer a pathway toward reducing legal disputes, improving content quality and creating new revenue streams for companies that own valuable intellectual property.

The agreement also highlights another major trend: ChatGPT is rapidly evolving beyond a chatbot.

By integrating licensed text, images and other media assets, OpenAI appears to be building a broader content ecosystem that increasingly resembles a search and discovery platform.

For investors, the rally in Getty shares represents a dramatic reassessment of the company's role in the AI economy.

Only days ago, Getty was widely perceived as a business vulnerable to disruption by artificial intelligence.

Today, the market is asking a very different question:

Could companies that own high-quality, rights-cleared content become some of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI era?

FAQs

FAQ: What is Getty Images?

Getty Images is one of the world's largest visual-content companies, providing licensed photographs, videos, illustrations and editorial imagery to media organizations, businesses, advertisers and creative professionals.

Founded in 1995, the company owns and distributes a vast library of millions of images covering news, sports, entertainment, business and historical archives. Getty Images is widely used by major news organizations, corporations and marketing agencies worldwide.

The company generates revenue primarily by licensing its content and protecting intellectual-property rights, making it one of the most recognized names in the global stock-photography and visual-media industry.