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Wolfspeed, Inc. is an American developer and manufacturer of huge-bandgap semiconductors, focused on silicon carbide and gallium nitride materials and gadgets for energy and radio frequency applications equivalent to transportation, energy provides, power inverters, and wireless systems. Cree Research was based in July 1987 in Durham, North Carolina. 5 of the six founders - Neal Hunter, Thomas Coleman, John Edmond, Eric Hunter, EcoLight LED bulbs 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 - have been in search of methods to leverage the properties of silicon carbide to enable semiconductors to function at higher operating temperatures and power ranges. Additionally they knew silicon carbide could serve because the diode in gentle-emitting diode (LED) lighting, a light source first demonstrated in 1907 with an electrically charged diode of silicon carbide. The analysis staff devised a solution to grow silicon crystals in the laboratory, and in 1987 based the corporate to provide silicon carbide to be used commercially in both semiconductors and lighting.

In 1989, the company introduced the first blue LED, enabling the event of giant, full-color video screens and billboards. In 1991, EcoLight LED bulbs the company launched the first commercial silicon carbide wafer. In 1993, the corporate grew to become a public firm through 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 to be used in remote phosphor lighting. In 2013, the company's first client merchandise, two family LED bulbs, certified for Power Star ranking by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. In July 2016, Infineon Applied sciences agreed to acquire the company's Wolfspeed RF and power electronics devices unit for $850 million. However, the deal was terminated in February 2017 as a result of regulators’ nationwide safety considerations. In March 2018, the corporate acquired the RF Energy Enterprise Infineon Technologies AG's for €345 million. In Could 2019, the corporate bought its Lighting Merchandise division (now branded as Cree Lighting) to Best Industries.

In September 2019, the company 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 EcoLight LED bulbs Business to Smart World Holdings for as much as $300 million. In October 2021, the company changed its identify to Wolfspeed. In April 2022, the Marcy, New York, facility opened. In November 2022, the company announced that co-founder and Chief Technology Officer John Palmour had died. In February 2023 it introduced it could construct its first European factory in Germany. It's imagined 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 important challenge of widespread European curiosity (IPCEI) for Microelectronics and Communication Technologies. In August 2023, EcoLight LED bulbs it was announced the Lowell-headquartered semiconductor company, MACOM had entered right into a definitive settlement to accumulate Wolfspeed's RF enterprise.

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 challenge's indefinite hold in October 2024, citing low demand. As a result, ZF ceased to participate within the undertaking. In October 2024, the Biden Administration announced that it would offer Wolfspeed with as much as $750 million in direct funding to help the corporate's new silicon carbide manufacturing unit in North Carolina that makes the wafers used in superior laptop chips and its factory in Marcy, New York. On May 20, 2025, it was reported that Wolfspeed was getting ready to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy within the coming weeks after warning that it may be unable to continue future operations after decrease than expected annual sales had been reported. Wolfspeed's stock slid to barely over a greenback per share that day. On June 18, 2025, Wolfspeed introduced that they would sell itself to Apollo Global Administration in a deal that might put the company right into a prepackaged Chapter eleven bankruptcy filing, which might enable for the elimination of nearly all of its multi-billion greenback debt.

Wolfspeed entered into a restructuring help agreement with its lenders and Renesas Electronics, EcoLight and introduced that they might file for prepackaged Chapter eleven bankruptcy by July 1, as a part of a plan to eliminate $4.6 billion of debt, stating they only had about $1.1 billion left in cash. The company may even obtain $275 million in financing backed by its lenders, with plans to complete restructuring by Q3 2025. After the announcement, Wolfspeed's inventory fell 30%, sliding below $1 per share. On June 26, 2025, Wolfspeed started laying off employees from their manufacturing facility positioned in Racine, EcoLight Wisconsin. On June 30, 2025, Wolfspeed filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy safety. On October 13, 2022, a facilities electrician was electrocuted on 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 company's poor work safety record. State Division of Labor investigations into the corporate have uncovered 17 workplace security violations between 2012 and 2023, including six serious violations.