Samsung Partners with Tesla as Apple Seeks to Compete Via Foldable Phone

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jul 30, 8:02AM EDT

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Samsung Partners with Tesla as Apple Seeks to Compete Via Foldable Phone — © 2014 Getty Images / Getty Images News via Getty Images

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Tesla and Samsung have just announced a partnership centered around a multibillion-dollar chip supply agreement. Musks AI company and Samsung electronics will work together to push Samsungs advanced memory and logic chips. These chips are necessary for powering AI applications, such as large language models. The $16.5 billion deal will enhance Samsung’s competitiveness in a fast-moving high-tech industry. The move highlights current international competition surrounding semiconductor technology.

While Tesla partners with Samsung, Apple is attempting to compete with the innovative company. If the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction) iPhone has a rival, it is Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip6. PC Magazine recently described it as the best foldable phone on the market, and other prominent media outlets have said the same. It runs on Android OS and has Galaxy AI features. Its primary feature is that it folds in half, which means that when opened, it has a 7.6-inch inner and a 6.3-inch external display. Apple thinks the Samsung phone is good enough to build a foldable phone.

24/7 Wall St. Key Points:

Smartphones and laptops with foldable screens are reportedly coming from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL).
The company needs something to shake up anemic iPhone sales.
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The Wall Street Journal reports that the foldable phone is part of a major relaunch of some of Apple’s products. One will be a laptop with a screen that can open to one the size of a desktop. Additionally, the paper reports, “A smaller model would unfold to a display size that would be larger than an iPhone 16 Pro Max, intended to serve as a foldable iPhone.”

Several industry observers view this as a way to turbocharge iPhone sales. Despite new AI features on the iPhone 16, new generations have been relatively similar. Apple needs a breakout feature to reach a broader market than current owners.

The new foldable model, which may be called the iPhone Fold, is set to be released in the second half of 2026. Leaks reveal the design to be book-style, featuring a roughly 7.8-inch internal display with a crease-free OLED. The external screen will be about 5.5 inches. Other reports say Apple may implement a side-button touch ID sensor in lieu of Face ID to save internal space. Pricing will likely be between $1,800-$2,300 USD. Prototype testing is currently underway.

The foldable iPhone might be risky because it is a new feature for Apple. However, the company may be forced to counter the Samsung feature to enhance sales.

This post was updated on July 30, 2025 to include the Tesla/Samsung deal and new reports regarding the iPhone Fold.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.