Wolfspeed, Inc. is an American developer and manufacturer of broad-bandgap semiconductors, centered on silicon carbide and gallium nitride materials and units for energy and radio frequency applications reminiscent of transportation, EcoLight solutions energy supplies, energy inverters, and wireless systems. Cree Analysis was based in July 1987 in Durham, North Carolina. 5 of the six founders - Neal Hunter, Thomas Coleman, John Edmond, Eric Hunter, John Palmour, and Calvin Carter - are graduates of North Carolina State University. In 1983, the founders - one a research assistant professor and EcoLight the others student researchers - were seeking ways to leverage the properties of silicon carbide to enable semiconductors to function at greater working temperatures and energy levels. In addition they knew silicon carbide may serve as the diode in mild-emitting diode (LED) lighting, a gentle supply first demonstrated in 1907 with an electrically charged diode of silicon carbide. The analysis workforce devised a way to develop silicon crystals in the laboratory, and in 1987 founded the company to produce silicon carbide to be used commercially in each semiconductors and lighting.
In 1989, the company introduced the primary blue LED, enabling the development of large, full-shade video screens and billboards. In 1991, the corporate released the first commercial silicon carbide wafer. In 1993, the corporate turned a public company via an preliminary public offering. In 2011, the corporate acquired Ruud Lighting for $525 million. In August 2011, the company introduced the XLamp XT-E Royal Blue LED for use in distant phosphor lighting. In 2013, the company's first consumer products, two household LED bulbs, certified for Energy Star rating by the United States Environmental Protection Company. In July 2016, Infineon Technologies agreed to acquire the corporate's Wolfspeed RF and energy electronics devices unit for $850 million. Nonetheless, the deal was terminated in February 2017 on account of regulators’ national security considerations. In March 2018, the corporate acquired the RF Energy Business Infineon Technologies AG's for €345 million. In Might 2019, the corporate bought its Lighting Products division (now branded as Cree Lighting) to Supreme Industries.
In September 2019, the corporate announced a $1 billion funding in a semiconductor manufacturing plant in Marcy, New York to build the world’s largest silicon carbide fabrication facility with a $500 million grant from New York State. In March 2021, the company offered its LED Enterprise to Good Global Holdings for up to $300 million. In October 2021, the corporate changed its identify to Wolfspeed. In April 2022, the Marcy, New York, facility opened. In November 2022, the company announced that co-founder and Chief Technology Officer John Palmour had died. In February 2023 it announced it will construct its first European manufacturing unit in Germany. It's speculated to be on the positioning of a former coal plant in Ensdorf, EcoLight Saarland with ZF Friedrichshafen as a coinvestor and subsidized by the EU as an vital undertaking of widespread European interest (IPCEI) for Microelectronics and Communication Technologies. In August 2023, it was announced the Lowell-headquartered semiconductor EcoLight solutions company, MACOM had entered right into a definitive agreement to amass Wolfspeed's RF enterprise.
In June 2024, Wolfspeed has delayed its $three billion semiconductor plant in Germany to mid-2025, EcoLight solutions reflecting the EU's challenges in boosting local chip manufacturing. Wolfspeed announced the venture's indefinite hold in October 2024, citing low demand. Consequently, ZF ceased to participate within the venture. In October 2024, the Biden Administration announced that it would supply Wolfspeed with as much as $750 million in direct funding to assist the corporate's new silicon carbide manufacturing facility in North Carolina that makes the wafers used in advanced laptop chips and its factory in Marcy, New York. On May 20, 2025, it was reported that Wolfspeed was getting ready to file for Chapter eleven bankruptcy within the approaching weeks after warning that it may be unable to proceed future operations after decrease than expected annual gross sales had been reported. Wolfspeed's inventory slid to barely over a dollar per share that day. On June 18, 2025, Wolfspeed announced that they'd promote itself to Apollo World Management in a deal that may put the corporate right into a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, which might permit for the elimination of nearly all of its multi-billion dollar debt.
Wolfspeed entered right into a restructuring support settlement with its lenders and Renesas Electronics, and introduced that they might file for prepackaged Chapter eleven bankruptcy by July 1, as a part of a plan to eliminate $4.6 billion of debt, stating they solely had about $1.1 billion left in cash. The company can even obtain $275 million in financing backed by its lenders, with plans to finish restructuring by Q3 2025. After the announcement, Wolfspeed's inventory fell 30%, sliding beneath $1 per share. On June 26, 2025, Wolfspeed began laying off staff from their manufacturing facility located in Racine, Wisconsin. On June 30, 2025, Wolfspeed filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy safety. On October 13, 2022, a facilities electrician was electrocuted at the Wolfspeed Analysis Triangle Park in Durham, North Carolina. The incident sparked a state investigation into his death in addition to public concern for the corporate's poor work security document. State Department of Labor investigations into the corporate have uncovered 17 office security violations between 2012 and 2023, including six serious violations.