Wolfspeed, Inc. is an American developer and manufacturer of vast-bandgap semiconductors, centered on silicon carbide and gallium nitride materials and devices for power and radio frequency applications akin to transportation, energy provides, power inverters, and wireless methods. Cree Analysis was based in July 1987 in Durham, North Carolina. 5 of the six founders - Neal Hunter, Thomas Coleman, John Edmond, Eric Hunter, John Palmour, and EcoLight Calvin Carter - are graduates of North Carolina State University. In 1983, the founders - one a research assistant professor and the others pupil researchers - had been looking for methods to leverage the properties of silicon carbide to allow semiconductors to operate at higher working temperatures and energy levels. Additionally they knew silicon carbide may serve because the diode in light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, a light source first demonstrated in 1907 with an electrically charged diode of silicon carbide. The research staff devised a option to grow silicon crystals within the laboratory, and in 1987 based the corporate to produce silicon carbide for use commercially in each semiconductors and lighting.

In 1989, the company launched the primary blue LED, enabling the development of giant, full-shade video screens and billboards. In 1991, the corporate launched the primary industrial silicon carbide wafer. In 1993, the corporate became a public company through an preliminary 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 for EcoLight use in distant phosphor lighting. In 2013, the corporate's first client products, two family LED bulbs, qualified for Vitality Star score by the United States Environmental Safety Agency. In July 2016, Infineon Applied sciences agreed to amass the company's Wolfspeed RF and energy electronics devices unit for $850 million. However, the deal was terminated in February 2017 on account of regulators’ nationwide safety concerns. In March 2018, the corporate acquired the RF Energy Enterprise Infineon Technologies AG's for €345 million. In Might 2019, the company sold its Lighting Merchandise division (now branded as Cree Lighting) to Ideal 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 Sensible World Holdings for as much as $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 corporate introduced that co-founder and Chief Expertise Officer John Palmour had died. In February 2023 it announced it could build its first European manufacturing facility in Germany. It is presupposed 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 important venture of common European curiosity (IPCEI) for Microelectronics and Communication Technologies. In August 2023, it was announced the Lowell-headquartered semiconductor firm, MACOM had entered right into a definitive settlement to accumulate 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 production. Wolfspeed announced the undertaking's indefinite hold in October 2024, citing low demand. As a result, ZF ceased to take part within the mission. In October 2024, the Biden Administration announced that it would offer Wolfspeed with as much as $750 million in direct funding to assist the corporate's new silicon carbide manufacturing unit in North Carolina that makes the wafers utilized in superior pc chips and its manufacturing unit in Marcy, EcoLight New York. On May 20, 2025, it was reported that Wolfspeed was making ready to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy inside the coming weeks after warning that it could also be unable to proceed 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 introduced that they would promote itself to Apollo World Administration in a deal that would put the company right into a prepackaged Chapter eleven bankruptcy filing, which might allow for the elimination of the vast majority of its multi-billion dollar debt.

Wolfspeed entered right into a restructuring help agreement with its lenders and Renesas Electronics, and announced that they might file for prepackaged Chapter eleven bankruptcy by July 1, as part of a plan to remove $4.6 billion of debt, stating they only had about $1.1 billion left in money. The corporate will also 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 situated in Racine, Wisconsin. On June 30, 2025, Wolfspeed filed for Chapter eleven bankruptcy safety. On October 13, 2022, a facilities electrician was electrocuted on the Wolfspeed Research 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 record. State Division of Labor investigations into the corporate have uncovered 17 workplace security violations between 2012 and 2023, together with six severe violations.