Rothschild lifts Apple to Buy, pointing to potential foldable iPhone and AI-led device cycle

Apple is back in focus on Wall Street after Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded the stock to Buy and sharply increased its price target, arguing that the next major iPhone cycle could be driven by two themes: a possible transition toward foldable smartphone designs and growing demand tied to Apple’s artificial intelligence efforts.

According to the brokerage note cited by Yahoo Finance, Rothschild moved Apple from Neutral to Buy and increased its target price to $400 from $260. The report frames the change as a response to improving outlooks for Apple’s product roadmap and its ability to convert interest in AI into hardware-led momentum, particularly through the iPhone lineup.

A key pillar in the optimism is the expectation that Apple will eventually enter the foldable smartphone category. Foldable phones, in basic terms, are devices that open into a larger screen using a flexible display technology, while also shrinking down when closed. In the analyst’s view, the arrival of an Apple foldable could widen the addressable market for iPhone upgrades and create a more compelling reason for consumers to switch devices.

The second pillar is Apple’s AI strategy. AI in the consumer phone context typically refers to on-device and cloud-based features that improve experiences such as writing, summarization, photo and video processing, and more. Rothschild’s upgrade suggests the firm expects Apple’s AI positioning to help sustain demand through the product cycle, rather than leaving AI as a purely software story that does not change buying behavior.

Rothschild’s move arrives amid heightened market attention on whether Apple can again broaden the upgrade base beyond incremental annual refreshes. Analysts and investors have increasingly looked for “new category” catalysts in addition to performance and camera improvements, because those more familiar upgrades tend to produce steadier but less dramatic shifts in unit growth.

Still, the public availability of concrete details about Apple’s foldable plans is limited in the brokerage note as presented here. The cited report does not provide Apple-confirmed specifications, timelines, or launch markets for a foldable iPhone, and Apple’s own announcements are not referenced in the Yahoo Finance summary. As a result, the upgrade should be read as an analyst forecast about Apple’s direction, not as proof that Apple has already committed to a near-term foldable product.

In the same way, while the analyst points to an AI strategy, the summary does not outline specific product features, monetization plans, or measurable milestones that would translate into revenue growth. For investors, that matters because AI-driven demand depends on both user-visible capabilities and the degree to which those capabilities are tightly coupled to newer device hardware.

What to watch next is whether Apple adds concrete, investor-relevant detail about its AI roadmap and whether any evidence emerges that a foldable device is on a credible path from R&D into manufacturing readiness. In the near term, markets will also likely look for follow-on commentary from other analysts, because an outsized price target shift often indicates that the firm sees asymmetric upside if the company’s category expansion comes into focus.