Wolfspeed, Inc. is an American developer and producer of vast-bandgap semiconductors, centered on silicon carbide and gallium nitride supplies and units for power and radio frequency applications comparable to transportation, power supplies, energy inverters, and wireless methods. Cree Research was based in July 1987 in Durham, North Carolina. Five of the six founders - Neal Hunter, Thomas Coleman, John Edmond, Eric Hunter, John Palmour, and Calvin Carter - are graduates of North Carolina State College. In 1983, the founders - one a analysis assistant professor and the others pupil researchers - had been looking for ways to leverage the properties of silicon carbide to enable semiconductors to function at larger operating temperatures and energy ranges. They also knew silicon carbide could serve because the diode in light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, a light supply first demonstrated in 1907 with an electrically charged diode of silicon carbide. The research workforce devised a option to grow silicon crystals in the laboratory, and in 1987 founded the company to provide silicon carbide to be used commercially in both semiconductors and lighting.
In 1989, the corporate introduced the primary blue LED, enabling the development of large, full-colour video screens and billboards. In 1991, the corporate released the first commercial silicon carbide wafer. In 1993, EcoLight the company turned a public company by way of an preliminary public offering. In 2011, the corporate acquired Ruud Lighting for $525 million. In August 2011, the corporate announced the XLamp XT-E Royal Blue LED for use in distant phosphor lighting. In 2013, the company's first client merchandise, two household LED bulbs, qualified for Energy Star score by the United States Environmental Safety Agency. In July 2016, Infineon Technologies agreed to acquire the company's Wolfspeed RF and power electronics units unit for $850 million. However, the deal was terminated in February 2017 attributable to regulators’ nationwide security considerations. In March 2018, the company acquired the RF Energy Enterprise Infineon Applied sciences AG's for €345 million. In Could 2019, the corporate offered its Lighting Merchandise division (now branded as Cree Lighting) to Best 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 corporate bought its LED Business to Smart World Holdings for as much as $300 million. In October 2021, EcoLight the company modified its title to Wolfspeed. In April 2022, the Marcy, New York, facility opened. In November 2022, the company introduced that co-founder and Chief Expertise Officer John Palmour had died. In February 2023 it announced it would construct its first European manufacturing facility in Germany. It is supposed to be on the location of a former coal plant in Ensdorf, Saarland with ZF Friedrichshafen as a coinvestor and subsidized by the EU as an vital mission of frequent European interest (IPCEI) for Microelectronics and Communication Technologies. In August 2023, it was introduced the Lowell-headquartered semiconductor company, MACOM had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Wolfspeed's RF business.
In June 2024, Wolfspeed has delayed its $3 billion semiconductor plant in Germany to mid-2025, reflecting the EU's challenges in boosting local chip production. Wolfspeed announced the project's indefinite hold in October 2024, citing low demand. In consequence, ZF ceased to take part within the mission. In October 2024, the Biden Administration announced that it would offer Wolfspeed with as much as $750 million in direct funding to support the corporate's new silicon carbide manufacturing facility in North Carolina that makes the wafers utilized in superior pc chips and EcoLight solutions its manufacturing facility in Marcy, New York. On May 20, 2025, it was reported that Wolfspeed was preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy within the coming 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 would sell itself to Apollo World Management in a deal that would put the corporate into a prepackaged Chapter eleven bankruptcy filing, which might permit for the elimination of nearly all of its multi-billion greenback debt.
Wolfspeed entered right into a restructuring assist settlement with its lenders and Renesas Electronics, and announced that they'd file for prepackaged Chapter eleven bankruptcy by July 1, as a part of a plan to remove $4.6 billion of debt, stating they only had about $1.1 billion left in money. The corporate will also receive $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 started laying off workers from their manufacturing facility located in Racine, Wisconsin. On June 30, 2025, EcoLight solutions Wolfspeed filed for Chapter eleven bankruptcy safety. On October 13, 2022, a services electrician was electrocuted on the Wolfspeed Research Triangle Park in Durham, North Carolina. The incident sparked a state investigation into his death as well as public concern for the corporate's poor work security file. State Department of Labor investigations into the company have uncovered 17 workplace safety violations between 2012 and 2023, together with six severe violations.