Wolfspeed, Inc. is an American developer and producer of large-bandgap semiconductors, focused on silicon carbide and gallium nitride supplies and units for energy and EcoLight radio frequency purposes akin to transportation, power provides, energy inverters, and wireless systems. Cree Research was founded 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 research assistant professor and the others scholar researchers - had been looking for methods to leverage the properties of silicon carbide to allow semiconductors to function at greater working temperatures and energy ranges. They also knew silicon carbide might 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 research staff devised a technique 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 company launched the primary blue LED, enabling the event of massive, EcoLight full-color video screens and billboards. In 1991, the corporate launched the first industrial silicon carbide wafer. In 1993, the corporate grew to become a public company through an initial public offering. In 2011, the corporate acquired Ruud Lighting for $525 million. In August 2011, the corporate introduced the XLamp XT-E Royal Blue LED to be used in remote phosphor lighting. In 2013, the corporate's first consumer merchandise, two household LED bulbs, certified for Power Star rating by the United States Environmental Safety Agency. In July 2016, EcoLight Infineon Technologies agreed to accumulate the company's Wolfspeed RF and power electronics gadgets unit for $850 million. Nonetheless, the deal was terminated in February 2017 resulting from regulators’ national security concerns. In March 2018, the corporate acquired the RF Power Business Infineon Technologies AG's for €345 million. In May 2019, the company bought its Lighting Merchandise division (now branded as Cree Lighting) to Supreme Industries.
In September 2019, the corporate announced a $1 billion investment 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 Smart Global Holdings for as much as $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 might construct its first European factory in Germany. It's purported to be on the site of a former coal plant in Ensdorf, Saarland with ZF Friedrichshafen as a coinvestor and subsidized by the EU as an essential undertaking of frequent European interest (IPCEI) for Microelectronics and Communication Technologies. In August 2023, it was introduced the Lowell-headquartered semiconductor EcoLight firm, MACOM had entered right into a definitive agreement to acquire Wolfspeed's RF enterprise.
In June 2024, Wolfspeed has delayed its $three billion semiconductor plant in Germany to mid-2025, reflecting the EU's challenges in boosting local chip manufacturing. Wolfspeed announced the venture's indefinite hold in October 2024, citing low demand. Because of this, ZF ceased to take part within the project. In October 2024, the Biden Administration introduced 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 computer chips and its manufacturing facility in Marcy, New York. On Might 20, 2025, it was reported that Wolfspeed was preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy within the approaching weeks after warning that it could also be unable to continue future operations after lower than anticipated annual gross sales were reported. Wolfspeed's inventory slid to barely over a dollar per share that day. On June 18, 2025, Wolfspeed introduced that they would promote itself to Apollo Global Administration in a deal that would put the company right into a prepackaged Chapter eleven bankruptcy filing, which would enable for the elimination of nearly all of its multi-billion dollar debt.
Wolfspeed entered into a restructuring help 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 get rid of $4.6 billion of debt, stating they only had about $1.1 billion left in money. The company may even receive $275 million in financing backed by its lenders, with plans to complete 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 positioned in Racine, Wisconsin. On June 30, 2025, Wolfspeed filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. On October 13, 2022, a services electrician was electrocuted at the Wolfspeed Analysis 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 document. State Department of Labor investigations into the company have uncovered 17 workplace safety violations between 2012 and 2023, together with six serious violations.