If you can’t beat them, display your images on their platform.
Shares of Getty Images Holdings Inc. experienced a dramatic reversal on Monday, skyrocketing as much as 145% intraday following the announcement of a multi-year partnership with OpenAI. The surge breathed new life into the stock-photo giant's shares, which had spent the better part of 2026 languishing in penny-stock territory amid deep investor anxieties about the future of generative artificial intelligence.
According to official company statements, the multi-year agreement will bring Getty Images’ licensed content library directly into OpenAI's search and discovery experiences within ChatGPT. The integration is designed to enhance user interactions by populating chatbot responses with premium, rights-cleared visuals.
Craig Peters, CEO at Getty Images, described the partnership as a win for internet credibility, stating, "High‑quality, licensed visual content makes AI‑powered search and discovery more useful and more trustworthy. This partnership with OpenAI reflects a shared recognition of that, and together we will deliver richer visual experiences to ChatGPT users."
A Getty spokesperson confirmed to Fast Company that the agreement is explicitly a "display" partnership, rather than a data-scraping license. This means OpenAI is permitted to show the images to end users, but the deal does not grant the tech firm the rights to use Getty’s vast photographic archives to train its future AI models. The companies have not disclosed the financial terms of the arrangement.
Shifting the AI Narrative
The market's explosive reaction signals a massive sigh of relief for investors who had previously dumped the stock, fearing that AI-native tools would make traditional stock photography obsolete. Before the announcement, Getty's stock was down nearly 55% year-to-date, closing at just 61 cents on the Thursday before the long Juneteenth holiday weekend, according to Bloomberg.
Over the last several years, Getty has been highly defensive of its intellectual property. The company famously launched a copyright infringement lawsuit against Stability AI in 2023, though Reuters noted that Getty largely lost that suit in Nov. last year.
By pivoting toward a distribution partnership with OpenAI, Getty is, analysts suggest, changing its market perception.
What lies ahead for Getty
While Monday's trading session saw Getty stock close 90% higher at $1.15, marking its best single-day performance since July 2022, the company still faces an uphill climb to recapture its historical valuation. The stock remains significantly down from its August 2022 post-SPAC-IPO peak of over $30 per share.
Moving forward, industry observers will be watching how OpenAI integrates these assets technically, whether the financial terms include recurring revenue structures, and how this deal impacts Getty's broader corporate ambitions.
According to Bloomberg, the photo giant missed its first-quarter sales expectations in May and is currently awaiting regulatory approval for its proposed $3.7 billion acquisition of rival stock platform Shutterstock Inc.
Also read: Noam Shazeer’s move from Google to OpenAI adds another high-profile example of AI talent shifting between the industry’s biggest rivals.