Wolfspeed, Inc. is an American developer and producer of wide-bandgap semiconductors, targeted on silicon carbide and gallium nitride supplies and devices for energy and radio frequency purposes akin to transportation, power supplies, energy inverters, and wireless techniques. Cree Research 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 the others pupil researchers - had been seeking methods to leverage the properties of silicon carbide to allow semiconductors to function at greater operating temperatures and energy levels. Additionally they knew silicon carbide may serve as the diode in mild-emitting diode (LED) lighting, a gentle supply first demonstrated in 1907 with an electrically charged diode of silicon carbide. The research crew devised a option to develop silicon crystals within the laboratory, and in 1987 based the corporate to supply silicon carbide for use commercially in both semiconductors and lighting.

In 1989, the company introduced the first blue LED, enabling the development of massive, full-shade video screens and billboards. In 1991, the company released the first business silicon carbide wafer. In 1993, LED bulbs for home the corporate became a public company through an preliminary public providing. In 2011, the company acquired Ruud Lighting for $525 million. In August 2011, EcoLight the corporate announced the XLamp XT-E Royal Blue LED for use in distant phosphor lighting. In 2013, the company's first client products, EcoLight two family LED bulbs, certified for Vitality Star ranking by the United States Environmental Safety Company. In July 2016, EcoLight Infineon Technologies agreed to amass the company's Wolfspeed RF and energy electronics gadgets unit for $850 million. Nevertheless, the deal was terminated in February 2017 resulting from regulators’ national security considerations. In March 2018, the company acquired the RF Energy Business Infineon Applied sciences AG's for €345 million. In Might 2019, the company sold its Lighting Merchandise division (now branded as Cree Lighting) to Superb Industries.

In September 2019, the company announced 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 sold its LED Enterprise to Smart Global Holdings for as much as $300 million. In October 2021, the corporate changed its identify to Wolfspeed. In April 2022, the Marcy, EcoLight 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 introduced it will construct its first European manufacturing facility in Germany. It is speculated 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 vital project of frequent European interest (IPCEI) for Microelectronics and Communication Applied sciences. In August 2023, it was announced the Lowell-headquartered semiconductor company, MACOM had entered into a definitive agreement to accumulate Wolfspeed's RF enterprise.

In June 2024, Wolfspeed has delayed its $three billion semiconductor EcoLight plant in Germany to mid-2025, reflecting the EU's challenges in boosting local chip manufacturing. Wolfspeed introduced the mission's indefinite hold in October 2024, citing low demand. In consequence, EcoLight ZF ceased to take part in the challenge. In October 2024, the Biden Administration announced that it would provide Wolfspeed with as much as $750 million in direct funding to support the corporate's new silicon carbide manufacturing unit in North Carolina that makes the wafers utilized in superior laptop chips and its manufacturing unit in Marcy, New York. On Could 20, 2025, it was reported that Wolfspeed was preparing to file for Chapter eleven bankruptcy inside the approaching weeks after warning that it may be unable to continue future operations after lower than anticipated annual sales have been 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 Global Management in a deal that may put the corporate into a prepackaged Chapter eleven bankruptcy filing, which would permit for the elimination of nearly all of its multi-billion greenback debt.

Wolfspeed entered right into a restructuring help agreement with its lenders and Renesas Electronics, and introduced that they might 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 cash. The corporate may even obtain $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 underneath $1 per share. On June 26, 2025, EcoLight solar bulbs 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 amenities electrician was electrocuted at the Wolfspeed Research Triangle Park in Durham, North Carolina. The incident sparked a state investigation into his demise as well as public concern for EcoLight the corporate's poor work safety report. State Department of Labor investigations into the company have uncovered 17 office security violations between 2012 and 2023, including six serious violations.