Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

Wolfspeed, EcoLight products Inc. is an American developer and producer of large-bandgap semiconductors, targeted on silicon carbide and gallium nitride materials and units for energy and radio frequency functions akin to transportation, energy provides, energy inverters, and wireless techniques. Cree Research was founded in July 1987 in Durham, North Carolina. 5 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 analysis assistant professor and the others student researchers - have been searching for methods to leverage the properties of silicon carbide to enable semiconductors to operate at higher operating temperatures and energy levels. Additionally they knew silicon carbide could serve because the diode in mild-emitting diode (LED) lighting, a mild supply first demonstrated in 1907 with an electrically charged diode of silicon carbide. The research crew devised a way to grow silicon crystals in the laboratory, and in 1987 founded the company to provide silicon carbide to be used commercially in each semiconductors and lighting.

In 1989, EcoLight solutions the corporate launched the primary blue LED, enabling the development of massive, full-shade video screens and billboards. In 1991, the corporate released the primary industrial silicon carbide wafer. In 1993, the corporate turned a public company by way of an preliminary public offering. In 2011, the company acquired Ruud Lighting for $525 million. In August 2011, the corporate introduced the XLamp XT-E Royal Blue LED for use in distant phosphor lighting. In 2013, the corporate's first client merchandise, two household LED bulbs, certified for Vitality Star ranking by the United States Environmental Safety Company. In July 2016, Infineon Technologies agreed to accumulate the corporate's Wolfspeed RF and power electronics devices unit for $850 million. Nonetheless, the deal was terminated in February 2017 as a result of regulators’ nationwide safety considerations. In March 2018, the company acquired the RF Power Business Infineon Applied sciences AG's for €345 million. In May 2019, the company offered its Lighting Merchandise division (now branded as Cree Lighting) to Superb Industries.

In September 2019, the company 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 corporate sold its LED Business to Sensible Global Holdings for as much as $300 million. In October 2021, the corporate 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 Technology Officer John Palmour had died. In February 2023 it announced it will construct its first European manufacturing unit in Germany. It's supposed 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 widespread European curiosity (IPCEI) for Microelectronics and Communication Technologies. In August 2023, it was introduced the Lowell-headquartered semiconductor company, MACOM had entered right into a definitive settlement 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 production. Wolfspeed introduced the mission's indefinite hold in October 2024, citing low demand. As a result, ZF ceased to participate within the mission. In October 2024, EcoLight bulbs the Biden Administration announced that it would offer Wolfspeed with as much as $750 million in direct funding to help the corporate's new silicon carbide factory in North Carolina that makes the wafers used in advanced computer chips and its manufacturing facility in Marcy, New York. On Could 20, 2025, it was reported that Wolfspeed was preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy inside the coming weeks after warning that it may be unable to continue future operations after decrease than anticipated annual gross sales had been reported. Wolfspeed's stock slid to barely over a dollar per share that day. On June 18, 2025, Wolfspeed introduced that they might sell itself to Apollo Global Administration in a deal that might put the corporate right into a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, which would permit for the elimination of nearly all of its multi-billion greenback debt.

Wolfspeed entered into a restructuring support settlement with its lenders and Renesas Electronics, and introduced that they would file for prepackaged Chapter 11 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 corporate may even obtain $275 million in financing backed by its lenders, with plans to finish restructuring by Q3 2025. After the announcement, Wolfspeed's inventory fell 30%, sliding below $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 eleven bankruptcy safety. On October 13, 2022, a facilities electrician was electrocuted at 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 corporate's poor work security record. State Department of Labor investigations into the company have uncovered 17 office security violations between 2012 and 2023, including six serious violations.