Luxury smartphone brand Vertu on Thursday unveiled a foldable phone powered by an AI agent that connects to enterprise software and coordinates workflows. The company targets executives who manage business operations and communications on the go.
Called Alphafold, the foldable smartphone starts at $6,880 for the calfskin version. High-end models feature bespoke finishes, including alligator leather, 18-karat gold and natural diamonds, as well as personalized details. This fits with Vertu’s long-standing strategy of positioning its phones as luxury status symbols aimed at affluent buyers. The company told TechCrunch that its highest-end standard model is currently priced at $46,800, with other customization options available.
This launch marks Vertu’s latest attempt to reinvent itself for the AI era, after struggling to stay relevant in the modern smartphone market. The Hong Kong-based company, formerly known for its luxury handsets and concierge services popular among wealthy buyers before the rise of the iPhone, have changed ownership several times Over the years, large smartphone manufacturers have come to dominate the sector. Still, Vertu is betting that Alphafold can help reinvent the brand in the AI era by combining luxury hardware with enterprise-focused AI capabilities.
Vertu’s Alphafold comes with Hermes Agent, built on Nous Research’s open source Hermes project. The agent can connect to business systems such as ERP and CRM and coordinate tasks such as approvals, scheduling, sales tracking, travel planning and operational reporting via natural language prompts. However, the company said its Phone-to-ERP and VPS deployments would be customized for each customer based on their existing business systems, with pricing varying accordingly.
According to Vertu, Alphafold can route requests to multiple AI models, including OpenAI’s GPT, Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini, and select open source models, while integrating with more than 80 apps and dozens of native phone functions for cross-platform workflows.
Existing AI features on smartphones from major manufacturers remain largely focused on consumer tools such as image editing and voice assistance, said Vertu CEO Molly Ma. This leaves room for more advanced AI agent workflows linked to business systems. She also highlighted previous experiments on smartphones using AI agents in China, which gained popularity before facing data privacy challenges and cloud-based data collection.
Alphafold, Ma said, aims to address these concerns with a privacy-focused architecture featuring a proprietary A5 security chip. This silicon is designed to isolate authentication keys, biometric credentials and sensitive corporate information from the main operating system, the company said. He added that commercially sensitive data can be processed locally on the device, while prompts sent to external AI models are redacted or tokenized before leaving the phone.
Although Vertu has focused on the device’s privacy and security architecture, including on-device data processing and deletion features, the company said the system has not yet undergone third-party security audits or independent certification. However, Vertu told TechCrunch that independent audits and certification remain on its security roadmap “as an explicit commitment to the next step,” adding that it will “publicly communicate progress and results” once the product reaches maturity.
The Alphafold is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 processor and features an 8.05-inch foldable display as well as a 6.53-inch exterior display, a 6,500 mAh battery, and satellite communications capabilities. The device also features a triple rear camera setup with 50-megapixel primary and ultra-wide cameras, along with a 5-megapixel telephoto lens. Vertu said the phone’s hinge uses metal, titanium and carbon fiber components and is rated for up to 650,000 bends.
The Alphafold isn’t Vertu’s first attempt at combining AI with foldable devices. The company last year introduced Agent Qa foldable clamshell smartphone focused on AI-based automation and productivity features.
However, Ma told TechCrunch that Alphafold represents a significant step forward from Agent Q, saying that AI agent technology has matured rapidly over the past year, with improvements in memory, automation and application integration.
Foldable smartphones remain a niche segment globally despite years of investment from major manufacturers including Samsung and Huawei. As many as 20 million foldable smartphones were shipped globally in 2025, representing less than 2% of total smartphone shipments, according to IDC data shared with TechCrunch. The research firm said foldable smartphones sold last year at an average price of about $1,300, about three times the price of non-foldable smartphones.
Kiranjeet Kaur, associate research director for mobile phone research at IDC, said foldable devices could potentially benefit AI agent workflows because their larger screens are better suited to multitasking and productivity-focused experiences. She added, however, that enterprise adoption of AI on smartphones still lags behind desktops, and 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 Vertu’s Alphafold begins shipping this week to major markets, including the United States.
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