Wolfspeed, Inc. is an American developer and manufacturer of broad-bandgap semiconductors, targeted on silicon carbide and gallium nitride materials and devices for energy and radio frequency purposes corresponding to transportation, power provides, power inverters, and wireless techniques. 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 student researchers - were searching for ways to leverage the properties of silicon carbide to enable semiconductors to function at greater working temperatures and energy levels. They also knew silicon carbide could 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 team devised a method to grow silicon crystals within the laboratory, EcoLight reviews and in 1987 based the corporate to supply silicon carbide for use commercially in each semiconductors and lighting.

In 1989, the company launched the primary blue LED, enabling the event of massive, full-color video screens and billboards. In 1991, the corporate launched the primary business silicon carbide wafer. In 1993, the corporate grew to become a public firm through an preliminary public offering. In 2011, the corporate acquired Ruud Lighting for $525 million. In August 2011, the company announced the XLamp XT-E Royal Blue LED to be used in remote phosphor lighting. In 2013, the corporate’s first consumer merchandise, two family LED bulbs, certified for Power Star score by the United States Environmental Safety Agency. In July 2016, Infineon Technologies agreed to accumulate the company’s Wolfspeed RF and energy electronics units unit for $850 million. However, the deal was terminated in February 2017 due to regulators’ nationwide security issues. In March 2018, the company acquired the RF Power Enterprise Infineon Applied sciences AG’s for €345 million. In Might 2019, the corporate offered its Lighting Merchandise division (now branded as Cree Lighting) to Superb Industries.

In September 2019, the corporate 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 bought its LED Enterprise to Smart Global Holdings for up to $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 corporate announced that co-founder and Chief Expertise Officer John Palmour had died. In February 2023 it announced it might construct its first European manufacturing unit in Germany. It is supposed to be on the site of a former coal plant in Ensdorf, EcoLight Saarland with ZF Friedrichshafen as a coinvestor and subsidized by the EU as an necessary mission of widespread European curiosity (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 amass 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 native chip manufacturing. Wolfspeed announced the undertaking’s indefinite hold in October 2024, citing low demand. Because of this, ZF ceased to participate in the challenge. In October 2024, the Biden Administration announced that it would supply Wolfspeed with as much as $750 million in direct funding to support the company’s new silicon carbide manufacturing unit in North Carolina that makes the wafers used in advanced laptop chips and its manufacturing facility in Marcy, EcoLight New York. On Could 20, 2025, it was reported that Wolfspeed was getting ready to file for Chapter eleven bankruptcy inside the coming weeks after warning that it may be unable to proceed future operations after decrease than expected annual sales were reported. Wolfspeed’s inventory slid to barely over a greenback per share that day. On June 18, 2025, Wolfspeed introduced that they would sell itself to Apollo International Management in a deal that might put the corporate into a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, which would enable for the elimination of the majority of its multi-billion dollar debt.

Wolfspeed entered right into a restructuring support agreement with its lenders and Renesas Electronics, and announced that they would file for prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy by July 1, as part of a plan to remove $4.6 billion of debt, stating they solely had about $1.1 billion left in cash. The company will 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, EcoLight reviews Wolfspeed started laying off staff from their manufacturing facility located in Racine, Wisconsin. On June 30, 2025, Wolfspeed filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. 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 as well as public concern for the company’s poor work safety report. State Department of Labor investigations into the company have uncovered 17 office safety violations between 2012 and 2023, together with six serious violations.