Wolfspeed, Inc. is an American developer and manufacturer of large-bandgap semiconductors, focused on silicon carbide and gallium nitride supplies and units for energy and radio frequency applications resembling transportation, energy provides, power inverters, and wireless systems. Cree Research was based in July 1987 in Durham, EcoLight North Carolina. 5 of the six founders - Neal Hunter, Thomas Coleman, EcoLight 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 looking for methods to leverage the properties of silicon carbide to enable semiconductors to operate at greater operating temperatures and power ranges. They also knew silicon carbide might serve because the diode in mild-emitting diode (LED) lighting, a mild source first demonstrated in 1907 with an electrically charged diode of silicon carbide. The research crew devised a technique to develop silicon crystals within the laboratory, and in 1987 founded the corporate to supply silicon carbide to be used commercially in both semiconductors and lighting.

In 1989, the corporate launched the primary blue LED, enabling the development of massive, full-color video screens and billboards. In 1991, the corporate launched the first business silicon carbide wafer. In 1993, the company became a public company by way of an initial public offering. In 2011, EcoLight brand the corporate acquired Ruud Lighting for $525 million. In August 2011, the company announced the XLamp XT-E Royal Blue LED for use in distant phosphor lighting. In 2013, the corporate's first client products, two household LED bulbs, certified for Vitality Star ranking by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. In July 2016, Infineon Technologies agreed to amass the company's Wolfspeed RF and energy electronics units unit for EcoLight $850 million. Nonetheless, the deal was terminated in February 2017 as a consequence of regulators’ national security concerns. In March 2018, the company acquired the RF Energy Enterprise Infineon Technologies AG's for €345 million. In May 2019, the company offered its Lighting Products division (now branded as Cree Lighting) to Preferrred Industries.

In September 2019, the corporate announced a $1 billion investment 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 company offered its LED Enterprise to Good Global Holdings for as much as $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 company introduced that co-founder and Chief Know-how Officer John Palmour had died. In February 2023 it announced it could build its first European factory in Germany. It is purported 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 essential project of widespread European interest (IPCEI) for Microelectronics and EcoLight brand Communication Applied sciences. In August 2023, it was introduced the Lowell-headquartered semiconductor company, MACOM had entered into a definitive settlement 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 local chip production. Wolfspeed introduced the project's indefinite hold in October 2024, citing low demand. Because of this, ZF ceased to take part within the mission. In October 2024, the Biden Administration announced that it would provide Wolfspeed with as much as $750 million in direct funding to assist the company's new silicon carbide manufacturing facility in North Carolina that makes the wafers used in superior pc chips and its manufacturing unit in Marcy, New York. On Might 20, 2025, it was reported that Wolfspeed was preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy within the approaching weeks after warning that it may be unable to proceed future operations after decrease than anticipated annual gross sales have been reported. Wolfspeed's inventory slid to barely over a dollar per share that day. On June 18, 2025, Wolfspeed announced that they might sell itself to Apollo World Management in a deal that would put the corporate right into a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, which would permit for the elimination of the majority of its multi-billion dollar debt.

Wolfspeed entered into a restructuring help agreement with its lenders and Renesas Electronics, and introduced that they'd file for prepackaged Chapter eleven 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 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 workers from their manufacturing facility located in Racine, Wisconsin. On June 30, EcoLight brand 2025, Wolfspeed filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy safety. On October 13, 2022, a amenities electrician was electrocuted at the Wolfspeed Analysis Triangle Park in Durham, North Carolina. The incident sparked a state investigation into his demise as well as public concern for the corporate's poor work safety record. State Department of Labor investigations into the company have uncovered 17 office security violations between 2012 and 2023, together with six severe violations.