Shares of Samsung Electronics jumped 4.0% to $3,870 as the Korean tech giant unveiled its next-generation foldable smartphones at a splashy London event, but the real story is whether a simultaneous push into AI investments and robotics can justify the stock's recovery from a rough stretch that saw it slide from $4,070 to $3,610 over the prior week. Samsung's Big Week: Pricier Foldables, a Billion-Dollar AI Bet, and a New Robotics Unit — Is This Enough to Reignite a Stalled Stock?
Shares surged 4.0% to $3,870 as Samsung crammed three major strategic moves into 48 hours: new foldable phones at higher prices, a potential €1 billion stake in a French AI startup, and a brand-new robotics division reporting to the CEO. The rally claws back a slide from $4,070 to $3,610 over the prior week, but whether this trio of announcements marks real transformation — or just expensive bets — is the question shareholders need to answer.
• Higher Phone Prices Test Customer Loyalty Before Apple Shows Up. Samsung launched three new foldable devices and raised prices to offset rising memory chip costs.
The clamshell model starts at €1,299 in Europe — €100 more than last year's version. The timing is deliberate: the new devices come ahead of an expected launch of Apple's first foldable iPhone.
Foldable shipments slipped 2% year-over-year to 3.4 million units in Q2 2026 , meaning Samsung is betting on fatter margins per phone rather than explosive volume growth — a risky play if Apple undercuts on price.
• A €1 Billion AI Investment Could Lock In Chip Sales. Samsung is discussing investing in Mistral as part of a funding round that could value the firm at about €20 billion — nearly double the €11.7 billion valuation set just ten months ago. This isn't charity. Mistral's CEO visited Samsung's chip campus in April to discuss memory supply; an equity stake would convert that supplier relationship into a deep strategic partnership , anchoring demand for Samsung's high-bandwidth memory chips. Samsung currently doesn't make its own AI language models — its Galaxy AI uses Google's technology — so this would be its first direct investment in an independent AI lab outside of Google.
• A CEO-Led Robotics Division Signals Where Future Spending Goes. Samsung established its new robotics division on July 20, aimed at accelerating commercialization, reporting directly to the CEO.
The unit is led by an executive who previously ran Hyundai's robotics strategy, including its work with Boston Dynamics.
Samsung plans to first automate its own factories, aiming to turn all production sites into "AI autonomous factories" by 2030 , before selling robots externally. That timeline means years of heavy spending before revenue materializes.
• The Real Math: Three Bets, One Balance Sheet. Pricier phones pad near-term margins. The Mistral stake secures chip demand. Robotics promises long-term growth. But together, these commitments — including a reported 60 trillion won (~$40.7 billion) domestic manufacturing investment — stretch capital across fronts where returns remain unproven.