Getty Images has signed a multi-year licensing agreement with OpenAI, according to The Decoder. Under the deal, Getty's licensed photos will appear inside ChatGPT search.
The arrangement means that when people use ChatGPT to look something up, the results can be illustrated with images that Getty has the rights to distribute, rather than pictures of unclear origin scraped from the open web.
The market reaction was striking. According to Benzinga, Getty Images Holdings (NYSE: GETY) had been a stock that "AI nearly wiped out" — and the OpenAI deal sent it sharply higher, with Benzinga reporting the agreement roughly doubled the stock.
The sources here do not disclose the financial terms of the agreement, its exact length beyond being "multi-year," or how many images are covered. Those details are not provided, so they should not be assumed.
The broader context the two sources point to is a notable reversal. For the past few years, AI image generators and AI-written answers have been seen as a threat to companies like Getty, whose business depends on selling access to professional photography. A licensing deal flips that dynamic: instead of being undercut by AI, Getty is being paid to supply content to one of the most prominent AI products.
Why it matters: the deal is an early sign that, rather than simply displacing stock-photo companies, leading AI firms may end up paying them to provide trustworthy, rights-cleared images — turning a perceived existential threat into a revenue stream.