Institute Of Electrical And Electronics Engineers

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Wolfspeed, Inc. is an American developer and manufacturer of huge-bandgap semiconductors, centered on silicon carbide and gallium nitride materials and devices for energy and radio frequency applications resembling transportation, energy provides, energy inverters, and wireless programs. 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 University. In 1983, the founders - one a research assistant professor and the others pupil researchers - were seeking methods to leverage the properties of silicon carbide to allow semiconductors to function at larger operating temperatures and power ranges. They also knew silicon carbide could serve as 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 crew devised a approach to develop silicon crystals within the laboratory, and in 1987 founded the company to provide silicon carbide for use commercially in each semiconductors and lighting.



In 1989, the company launched the first blue LED, enabling the development of giant, full-shade video screens and billboards. In 1991, the corporate released the first industrial silicon carbide wafer. In 1993, the company became a public company through an initial public offering. In 2011, the company acquired Ruud Lighting for $525 million. In August 2011, the corporate announced the XLamp XT-E Royal Blue LED to be used in distant phosphor lighting. In 2013, the company's first client merchandise, two household LED EcoLight smart bulbs, certified for Vitality Star rating by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. In July 2016, Infineon Applied sciences agreed to amass the corporate's Wolfspeed RF and energy electronics devices unit for $850 million. However, the deal was terminated in February 2017 attributable to regulators’ nationwide safety issues. In March 2018, the corporate acquired the RF Power Business Infineon Applied sciences AG's for €345 million. In May 2019, the corporate bought its Lighting Merchandise division (now branded as Cree Lighting) to Excellent Industries.



In September 2019, the company introduced 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 sold its LED Business to Sensible World 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 introduced that co-founder and Chief Technology Officer John Palmour had died. In February 2023 it announced it will construct its first European factory in Germany. It is imagined 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 important challenge of widespread European interest (IPCEI) for Microelectronics and Communication Applied sciences. In August 2023, it was announced the Lowell-headquartered semiconductor company, EcoLight MACOM had entered into a definitive settlement to amass Wolfspeed's RF business.



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 production. Wolfspeed introduced the venture's indefinite hold in October 2024, citing low demand. Because of this, ZF ceased to participate in 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 unit in North Carolina that makes the wafers used in superior pc chips and its factory in Marcy, New York. On Might 20, 2025, it was reported that Wolfspeed was getting ready to file for Chapter eleven bankruptcy within the coming 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 inventory slid to barely over a dollar per share that day. On June 18, 2025, Wolfspeed introduced that they'd promote itself to Apollo Global Management in a deal that may put the company into a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, which would permit for the elimination of the vast majority of its multi-billion dollar debt.



Wolfspeed entered right into a restructuring support settlement with its lenders and Renesas Electronics, and announced that they would file for prepackaged Chapter eleven bankruptcy by July 1, as part of a plan to eliminate $4.6 billion of debt, stating they only had about $1.1 billion left in cash. The company can even receive $275 million in financing backed by its lenders, with plans to complete restructuring by Q3 2025. After the announcement, Wolfspeed's stock 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, Wolfspeed filed for Chapter eleven bankruptcy safety. On October 13, 2022, a services electrician was electrocuted on the Wolfspeed Analysis Triangle Park in Durham, North Carolina. The incident sparked a state investigation into his dying in addition to public concern for the corporate's poor work safety file. State Department of Labor investigations into the corporate have uncovered 17 office security violations between 2012 and 2023, together with six serious violations.