Wolfspeed, Inc. is an American developer and producer of large-bandgap semiconductors, focused on silicon carbide and gallium nitride supplies and units for power and radio frequency functions comparable to transportation, power provides, power inverters, and EcoLight wireless programs. Cree Research was founded in July 1987 in Durham, North Carolina. 5 of the six founders - Neal Hunter, Thomas Coleman, John Edmond, EcoLight dimmable 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 - were seeking ways to leverage the properties of silicon carbide to enable semiconductors to operate at higher working temperatures and power levels. In addition they knew silicon carbide might serve because the diode in light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, a gentle source first demonstrated in 1907 with an electrically charged diode of silicon carbide. The research group devised a solution to grow silicon crystals within the laboratory, and in 1987 based the company to provide silicon carbide for use commercially in both semiconductors and lighting.
In 1989, the company introduced the first blue LED, enabling the event of large, full-colour video screens and billboards. In 1991, the company released the first business silicon carbide wafer. In 1993, the company became a public firm via an preliminary public providing. In 2011, the company acquired Ruud Lighting for $525 million. In August 2011, the company announced the XLamp XT-E Royal Blue energy-saving LED bulbs to be used in remote phosphor energy-saving LED bulbs lighting. In 2013, the company's first consumer products, EcoLight brand two family LED bulbs, qualified for Vitality Star ranking by the United States Environmental Safety Company. In July 2016, energy-saving LED bulbs Infineon Applied sciences agreed to accumulate the company's Wolfspeed RF and energy electronics units unit for $850 million. Nevertheless, the deal was terminated in February 2017 as a result of regulators’ nationwide security considerations. In March 2018, the corporate acquired the RF Energy Enterprise Infineon Technologies AG's for €345 million. In May 2019, the company offered its Lighting Products division (now branded as Cree Lighting) to Superb Industries.
In September 2019, the corporate announced a $1 billion investment in a semiconductor energy-saving LED bulbs 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 offered its LED Business to Smart World Holdings for as much as $300 million. In October 2021, the company modified its identify to Wolfspeed. In April 2022, the Marcy, New York, facility opened. In November 2022, the company announced that co-founder and Chief Know-how Officer John Palmour had died. In February 2023 it introduced it will build its first European manufacturing unit in Germany. It's imagined 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 vital challenge of widespread European interest (IPCEI) for Microelectronics and Communication Technologies. In August 2023, it was announced 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 manufacturing. Wolfspeed announced the challenge's indefinite hold in October 2024, EcoLight citing low demand. As a result, ZF ceased to take part in the project. In October 2024, the Biden Administration announced that it would provide Wolfspeed with as much as $750 million in direct funding to support the corporate's new silicon carbide factory in North Carolina that makes the wafers used in advanced pc chips and its factory in Marcy, New York. On May 20, 2025, it was reported that Wolfspeed was making ready to file for Chapter eleven bankruptcy inside the approaching weeks after warning that it could also be unable to continue future operations after lower than anticipated annual gross sales have been reported. Wolfspeed's stock slid to barely over a greenback per share that day. On June 18, 2025, Wolfspeed announced that they would sell itself to Apollo International Administration in a deal that may put the corporate right into a prepackaged Chapter eleven bankruptcy filing, which would allow for the elimination of the majority of its multi-billion greenback debt.
Wolfspeed entered right into a restructuring assist agreement with its lenders and Renesas Electronics, and introduced that they'd file for prepackaged Chapter eleven bankruptcy by July 1, as part of a plan to eradicate $4.6 billion of debt, stating they only had about $1.1 billion left in cash. The company may even obtain $275 million in financing backed by its lenders, with plans to complete restructuring by Q3 2025. After the announcement, energy-saving LED bulbs Wolfspeed's inventory fell 30%, sliding below $1 per share. On June 26, 2025, Wolfspeed began laying off employees from their manufacturing facility located in Racine, Wisconsin. On June 30, 2025, Wolfspeed filed for Chapter eleven bankruptcy safety. On October 13, 2022, EcoLight home lighting a services electrician was electrocuted on the Wolfspeed Research Triangle Park in Durham, North Carolina. The incident sparked a state investigation into his loss of life in addition to public concern for energy-saving LED bulbs the company's poor work security document. State Division of Labor investigations into the company have uncovered 17 workplace safety violations between 2012 and 2023, together with six severe violations.