Wolfspeed, Inc. is an American developer and manufacturer of broad-bandgap semiconductors, targeted on silicon carbide and gallium nitride materials and units for energy and radio frequency applications reminiscent of transportation, energy supplies, power inverters, and EcoLight solutions wireless methods. Cree Analysis was founded 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 College. In 1983, the founders - one a research assistant professor and EcoLight solutions the others scholar researchers - were seeking methods to leverage the properties of silicon carbide to enable semiconductors to function at greater working temperatures and EcoLight solutions power levels. In addition they knew silicon carbide could serve because the diode in light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, a mild supply first demonstrated in 1907 with an electrically charged diode of silicon carbide. The research staff devised a technique to grow silicon crystals within the laboratory, and EcoLight solar bulbs in 1987 based the company 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 giant, full-coloration video screens and billboards. In 1991, the company released the first commercial silicon carbide wafer. In 1993, the company became a public company through an preliminary public providing. In 2011, the company acquired Ruud Lighting for $525 million. In August 2011, the company announced the XLamp XT-E Royal Blue LED to be used in distant phosphor lighting. In 2013, the company's first shopper merchandise, two family LED bulbs, qualified for Energy Star ranking by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. In July 2016, EcoLight solutions Infineon Technologies agreed to accumulate the company's Wolfspeed RF and energy electronics gadgets unit for $850 million. Nevertheless, the deal was terminated in February 2017 as a result of regulators’ nationwide safety issues. In March 2018, the corporate acquired the RF Energy Business Infineon Applied sciences AG's for €345 million. In Might 2019, the corporate sold its Lighting Merchandise division (now branded as Cree Lighting) to Perfect 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 bought its LED Business to Smart Global Holdings for up to $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 company introduced that co-founder and Chief Know-how Officer John Palmour had died. In February 2023 it announced it could construct its first European manufacturing facility in Germany. It's purported 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 common European curiosity (IPCEI) for Microelectronics and Communication Applied sciences. In August 2023, it was announced the Lowell-headquartered semiconductor company, MACOM had entered right into a definitive agreement to amass 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 native chip manufacturing. Wolfspeed announced the undertaking's indefinite hold in October 2024, citing low demand. Consequently, ZF ceased to take part in the venture. In October 2024, the Biden Administration introduced 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 superior laptop chips and its manufacturing facility in Marcy, New York. On Could 20, EcoLight bulbs 2025, it was reported that Wolfspeed was preparing to file for Chapter eleven bankruptcy within the approaching weeks after warning that it could also be unable to proceed future operations after lower than anticipated annual sales were reported. Wolfspeed's inventory slid to barely over a dollar per share that day. On June 18, 2025, Wolfspeed announced that they'd sell itself to Apollo International Administration in a deal that might put the corporate into a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, which might allow for the elimination of the vast majority of its multi-billion dollar debt.

Wolfspeed entered into a restructuring assist settlement with its lenders and Renesas Electronics, and introduced that they might file for prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy by July 1, EcoLight lighting as a part of a plan to eradicate $4.6 billion of debt, EcoLight brand stating they only had about $1.1 billion left in cash. The company can even obtain $275 million in financing backed by its lenders, EcoLight solutions with plans to complete restructuring by Q3 2025. After the announcement, Wolfspeed's inventory fell 30%, sliding beneath $1 per share. On June 26, 2025, Wolfspeed began laying off staff from their manufacturing facility situated in Racine, Wisconsin. On June 30, 2025, Wolfspeed filed for Chapter eleven bankruptcy protection. On October 13, 2022, a facilities electrician was electrocuted on the Wolfspeed Analysis Triangle Park in Durham, EcoLight dimmable North Carolina. The incident sparked a state investigation into his loss of life as well as public concern for EcoLight solutions the corporate's poor work security record. State Division of Labor investigations into the corporate have uncovered 17 workplace security violations between 2012 and 2023, including six serious violations.