New York, Feb 9, 2026, 08:36 EST — Premarket.
- Snap rose 0.8% ahead of the open, following a Friday close at $5.22.
- Gucci has rolled out the luxury industry’s first Sponsored AI Lens, powered by Snap’s generative AI tech, according to Snap.
- Eyes are on Wednesday’s postponed U.S. jobs numbers and Friday’s CPI release—both seen as key signals for risk appetite.
Shares of Snap Inc edged 0.8% higher to $5.26 in Monday’s premarket session, based on Public.com figures. The Snapchat parent caught a lift after highlighting its latest ad partnership with Gucci. 1
It’s not just about a single campaign. What really stands out: Snap is doubling down on camera-driven ad formats, hoping that more interactive ads will unlock bigger budgets from marketers—and maybe push prices higher, too.
The news hits a nervous market. Ad-dependent firms are on edge—investors know even subtle economic moves tend to ripple fast into marketing budgets.
Snap announced that Gucci rolled out what the company is calling the luxury industry’s first Sponsored AI Lens on Snapchat. The feature taps Snap’s own generative AI tech — software capable of creating images on demand — to transform users into figures from Gucci’s “La Famiglia” collection. “Generative AI gives luxury brands an entirely new way to tell stories,” Snap’s global head of luxury Geoffrey Perez wrote in the post. 2
Snap calls its camera effects “Lenses.” The “Sponsored” ones—those are paid slots brands buy to get their content in front of users inside the app. Lately, Snap’s pushed harder to sell these formats, looking to cut back its dependence on just a handful of big advertisers.
Snap’s fourth-quarter numbers landed last week: revenue climbed 10% year-over-year to $1.72 billion, with active advertisers up 28%. But the company’s outlook for Q1 revenue fell short of what analysts had hoped for. “The ads platform (of Snap) still has a long way to go in attracting big budgets from enterprise advertisers,” said Emarketer’s Max Willens at the time. 3
Even as brands test out fresh formats, the key issue now is whether efforts such as Gucci’s actually become regular spending or just stay as isolated experiments. Snap continues to wrestle with heavy competition for ad budgets from bigger rivals, and when execs at luxury firms decide to tighten belts, marketing tends to get cyclical.
Wall Street’s mood can carry as much weight as new products. Stock futures edged lower Monday, following last week’s wild ride. “The rebound didn’t feel like the beginning of a sustainable reversal,” Swissquote Bank analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya noted. Investors now look ahead to Wednesday’s rescheduled January nonfarm payrolls, with the January consumer price index right behind on Friday. 4
