Luxury smartphone brand Vertu on Thursday unveiled a foldable phone powered by an AI agent that connects with enterprise software and coordinates workflows. The company targets executives who manage business operations and communications while on the road.
Called the Alphafold, the foldable smartphone starts at $6,880 for the calfskin version. Luxury models feature custom finishes and custom details, including alligator leather, 18k gold, and natural diamond accents. This continues Vertu’s long-standing strategy of positioning its phones as luxury status symbols aimed at wealthy buyers. The company told TechCrunch that the top-of-the-line standard model is currently priced at $46,800, with additional customization options available.
The launch marks Vertu’s latest attempt to reinvent itself for the AI era after struggling to remain competitive in the modern smartphone market. The Hong Kong-based company was once known for its high-end phones and concierge services that were popular among wealthy buyers before the advent of the iPhone, but it has changed ownership several times over the years as mainstream smartphone makers have come to dominate the industry. Nonetheless, Vertu is confident that Alphafold can help reinvent the brand for the AI era by combining advanced hardware and enterprise-focused AI capabilities.
Vertu’s Alphafold comes with the Hermes Agent, built on Nous Research’s open source Hermes project. Agents can connect to enterprise systems like ERP and CRM and coordinate tasks such as approvals, scheduling, sales tracking, travel planning, and operational reporting through natural language prompts. However, the company said Phone-to-ERP and VPS deployments will be customized for each customer based on their existing enterprise systems and pricing will vary accordingly.
According to Vertu, Alphafold can route requests across multiple AI models, including OpenAI’s GPT, Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini, and selected open source models, while integrating with more than 80 apps and dozens of native phone features for cross-platform workflows.
Vertu CEO Molly Ma said existing AI features in smartphones from major manufacturers are still primarily focused on consumer tools such as image editing and voice assistants. This leaves room for advanced AI agent workflows connected to enterprise systems. She also pointed to China’s early AI agent smartphone experiments that gained popularity before facing challenges over data privacy and cloud-based data collection.
Ma said Alphafold aims to solve these problems through a privacy-centric architecture featuring its proprietary A5 security chip. The silicon is designed to separate authentication keys, biometric credentials and sensitive corporate information from the main operating system, the company said. Commercially sensitive data can be processed locally on the device, and prompts sent to external AI models are redacted or tokenized before leaving the phone, he added.
Vertu highlighted the device’s privacy and security architecture, including on-device processing and data editing capabilities, but said its systems have not yet undergone a third-party security audit or independent certification. However, Vertu told TechCrunch that independent audits and certifications remain an “explicit next step commitment” in its security roadmap, adding that it will “communicate progress and results publicly” as the product becomes more mature.
The Alphafold is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 processor and features an 8.05-inch foldable display along with a 6.53-inch external screen, a 6,500 mAh battery, and satellite communication capabilities. The device also features a triple rear camera setup with 50-megapixel primary and ultra-wide-angle cameras and a 5-megapixel telephoto lens. Vertu says the phone’s hinge uses metal, titanium and carbon fiber components and can be folded up to 650,000 times.
Alphafold isn’t Vertu’s first attempt to combine AI and foldable devices. Last year, the company launched Agent Q, a clamshell-style foldable smartphone focused on AI-based automation and productivity features.
However, Ma told TechCrunch that Alphafold has made significant progress on Agent Q, arguing that AI agent technology has matured rapidly over the past year with improvements in memory, automation, and app integration.
Foldable smartphones remain a niche market globally despite years of investment from major manufacturers including Samsung and Huawei. According to IDC data shared with TechCrunch, foldable smartphones will reach 20 million units globally in 2025, accounting for less than 2% of total smartphone shipments. The average price of a foldable product last year was about $1,300, about three times the price of a non-foldable smartphone, according to the research firm.
Kiranjeet Kaur, associate director of mobile phone research at IDC, said that the larger displays of foldable devices are better suited to multitasking and productivity-oriented experiences, which could ultimately benefit from AI agent workflows. However, she added that enterprise AI adoption for smartphones still lags behind computers and that most enterprise smartphone decisions continue to be driven by ecosystem integration and device management support rather than AI capabilities.
The first batch of 115 units of the Vertu Alphafold will begin shipping to key markets, including the United States, this week.
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