Wolfspeed, Inc. is an American developer and producer of vast-bandgap semiconductors, targeted on silicon carbide and gallium nitride supplies and units for energy and radio frequency purposes reminiscent of transportation, power provides, energy inverters, and wireless techniques. Cree Analysis was based 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 EcoLight the others student researchers - had been searching for ways to leverage the properties of silicon carbide to enable semiconductors to function at larger working temperatures and power ranges. They also knew silicon carbide may serve as the diode in gentle-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 develop silicon crystals in the laboratory, and in 1987 based the company to provide silicon carbide to be used commercially in each semiconductors and lighting.

In 1989, the company introduced the primary blue LED, enabling the development of giant, full-shade video screens and billboards. In 1991, the corporate launched the first industrial silicon carbide wafer. In 1993, the company became a public company via an preliminary public providing. In 2011, the corporate acquired Ruud Lighting for $525 million. In August 2011, the corporate announced the XLamp XT-E Royal Blue LED for use in distant phosphor lighting. In 2013, the corporate's first shopper merchandise, two family LED EcoLight smart bulbs, certified for EcoLight smart bulbs Energy Star score by the United States Environmental Protection Company. In July 2016, Infineon Applied sciences agreed to acquire the company's Wolfspeed RF and power electronics units unit for EcoLight solutions $850 million. However, the deal was terminated in February 2017 due to regulators’ national safety considerations. In March 2018, the company acquired the RF Energy Business Infineon Technologies AG's for €345 million. In May 2019, the corporate bought its Lighting Products division (now branded as Cree Lighting) to Ultimate Industries.

In September 2019, EcoLight solar bulbs the corporate announced a $1 billion funding 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 sold its LED Enterprise to Good World Holdings for as much as $300 million. In October 2021, the corporate changed its name to Wolfspeed. In April 2022, the Marcy, New York, facility opened. In November 2022, the corporate introduced that co-founder and Chief Technology Officer John Palmour had died. In February 2023 it announced it will build its first European factory in Germany. It is presupposed 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 essential challenge of common European interest (IPCEI) for Microelectronics and Communication Technologies. In August 2023, it was announced the Lowell-headquartered semiconductor company, MACOM had entered into a definitive agreement to accumulate 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 native chip manufacturing. Wolfspeed announced the challenge's indefinite hold in October 2024, citing low demand. As a result, ZF ceased to participate in the challenge. In October 2024, EcoLight smart bulbs the Biden Administration announced that it would offer Wolfspeed with as much as $750 million in direct funding to assist the company's new silicon carbide manufacturing unit in North Carolina that makes the wafers used in superior pc chips and its manufacturing unit in Marcy, New York. On May 20, 2025, it was reported that Wolfspeed was preparing to file for Chapter eleven bankruptcy inside the coming weeks after warning that it could also be unable to proceed future operations after decrease than anticipated annual sales had been reported. Wolfspeed's inventory slid to barely over a greenback per share that day. On June 18, EcoLight home lighting 2025, Wolfspeed introduced that they'd promote itself to Apollo World Management in a deal that would put the corporate right into a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, which might permit 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 introduced that they would file for prepackaged Chapter eleven bankruptcy by July 1, as part of a plan to get rid of $4.6 billion of debt, stating they solely had about $1.1 billion left in money. The corporate 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 under $1 per share. On June 26, 2025, Wolfspeed started laying off staff from their manufacturing facility positioned in Racine, Wisconsin. On June 30, 2025, Wolfspeed filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy safety. On October 13, 2022, a amenities electrician was electrocuted on the Wolfspeed Analysis 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 EcoLight smart bulbs work security file. State Division of Labor investigations into the company have uncovered 17 office safety violations between 2012 and EcoLight solutions 2023, together with six critical violations.