GoKawiilLuxury smartphone brand Vertu on Thursday unveiled a foldable phone powered by an AI agent that connects with enterprise software and coordinates workflows. The company is targeting executives who manage business operations and communications on the move.
Called the Alphafold, the foldable smartphone starts at $6,880 for the calfskin version. Higher-end models feature bespoke finishes including alligator leather, 18K gold, and natural diamond accents, along with customized detailing. This continues 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 further customization options available.
The launch marks Vertu’s latest attempt to reinvent itself for the AI era after struggling to remain relevant in the modern smartphone market. The Hong Kong-headquartered company, once known for luxury handsets and concierge services popular among wealthy buyers before the rise of the iPhone, has changed ownership multiple times over the years as mainstream smartphone makers came to dominate the industry. Nonetheless, Vertu is betting the Alphafold can help reinvent the brand for the AI era by combining luxury hardware with enterprise-focused AI capabilities.
Vertu’s Alphafold comes with Hermes Agent, built on top of the open-source Hermes project by Nous Research. The agent 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 that its Phone-to-ERP and VPS deployments would be customized for each customer depending on their existing enterprise systems, with pricing varying accordingly.
Image Credits:Vertu
The Alphafold, Vertu said, can route requests across multiple AI models including OpenAI’s GPT, Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini, and selected open-source models, while also 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 focused largely on consumer tools such as image editing and voice assistance, Vertu CEO Molly Ma said. This leaves room for more advanced AI-agent workflows tied to enterprise systems. She also pointed to earlier AI-agent smartphone experiments in China that gained popularity before facing challenges over data privacy and cloud-based data collection.
The Alphafold, Ma said, aims to address those concerns through a privacy-focused architecture featuring a proprietary A5 security chip. This silicon is designed to isolate authentication keys, biometric credentials, and sensitive enterprise information from the main operating system, the company said. It 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.
While Vertu has emphasized the device’s privacy and security architecture, including on-device processing and data redaction 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 next-stage commitment,” adding that it would “communicate the progress and the results publicly” once the product matures further.
The Alphafold is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 processor and features an 8.05-inch foldable display alongside a 6.53-inch outer screen, a 6,500mAh battery, and satellite communication capabilities. The device also includes a triple rear camera setup with 50-megapixel primary and ultrawide cameras, as well as 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 folds.
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