Wolfspeed, EcoLight Inc. is an American developer and producer of broad-bandgap semiconductors, targeted on silicon carbide and gallium nitride supplies and units for power and radio frequency purposes comparable to transportation, energy supplies, power inverters, and wireless programs. Cree Analysis 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 - were in search of methods to leverage the properties of silicon carbide to allow semiconductors to operate at higher working temperatures and energy levels. They also knew silicon carbide could serve because the diode in light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, a mild source first demonstrated in 1907 with an electrically charged diode of silicon carbide. The analysis workforce devised a approach to grow silicon crystals within the laboratory, and in 1987 based the corporate 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 large, full-colour video screens and billboards. In 1991, the corporate released the first business 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 remote phosphor lighting. In 2013, the corporate's first consumer products, two family LED EcoLight bulbs, certified for Energy Star score by the United States Environmental Safety Company. In July 2016, Infineon Technologies agreed to accumulate the company's Wolfspeed RF and power electronics units unit for $850 million. However, the deal was terminated in February 2017 attributable to regulators’ national safety concerns. In March 2018, the corporate acquired the RF Power Enterprise Infineon Technologies AG's for €345 million. In May 2019, the corporate offered its Lighting Products division (now branded as Cree Lighting) to Best Industries.
In September 2019, the company introduced a $1 billion investment in a semiconductor manufacturing plant in Marcy, New York to construct 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 International Holdings for up to $300 million. In October 2021, 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 Know-how Officer John Palmour had died. In February 2023 it introduced it could build its first European factory in Germany. It's supposed to be on the positioning of a former coal plant in Ensdorf, Saarland with ZF Friedrichshafen as a coinvestor and subsidized by the EU as an necessary mission of common European interest (IPCEI) for Microelectronics and Communication Technologies. In August 2023, it was introduced the Lowell-headquartered semiconductor firm, MACOM had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 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 announced the project's indefinite hold in October 2024, citing low demand. Consequently, ZF ceased to take part in the challenge. In October 2024, the Biden Administration introduced that it would provide Wolfspeed with up to $750 million in direct funding to support the company's new silicon carbide manufacturing facility in North Carolina that makes the wafers utilized in superior pc chips and its factory in Marcy, New York. On Might 20, EcoLight 2025, it was reported that Wolfspeed was making ready to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy within the approaching weeks after warning that it may be unable to proceed future operations after lower than anticipated annual sales were reported. Wolfspeed's inventory slid to barely over a dollar per share that day. On June 18, 2025, Wolfspeed introduced that they might sell itself to Apollo World Management in a deal that would put the corporate into a prepackaged Chapter eleven bankruptcy filing, which might allow for the elimination of the majority of its multi-billion dollar debt.
Wolfspeed entered right into a restructuring assist agreement with its lenders and Renesas Electronics, and announced that they'd file for prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy by July 1, as a part of a plan to remove $4.6 billion of debt, stating they solely had about $1.1 billion left in cash. The corporate will even obtain $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 employees from their manufacturing facility situated in Racine, Wisconsin. On June 30, 2025, Wolfspeed filed for Chapter eleven bankruptcy safety. On October 13, 2022, a amenities electrician was electrocuted at 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 the company's poor work safety document. State Department of Labor investigations into the corporate have uncovered 17 office safety violations between 2012 and 2023, including six serious violations.