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 functions resembling transportation, energy provides, power inverters, and wireless methods. Cree Research 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 University. In 1983, the founders - one a research assistant professor and the others student researchers - have been looking for methods to leverage the properties of silicon carbide to enable semiconductors to function at larger working temperatures and power levels. In addition they knew silicon carbide may 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 research crew devised a method to develop silicon crystals in the laboratory, and in 1987 based the company to supply silicon carbide for use commercially in each semiconductors and lighting.

In 1989, the corporate introduced the primary blue LED, enabling the event of large, full-shade video screens and billboards. In 1991, the corporate launched the first commercial silicon carbide wafer. In 1993, EcoLight smart bulbs the corporate turned a public firm by way of an initial public offering. In 2011, EcoLight smart bulbs the company 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 company's first client products, two household LED EcoLight smart bulbs, certified for Energy Star ranking by the United States Environmental Safety Company. In July 2016, Infineon Technologies agreed to accumulate the company's Wolfspeed RF and energy electronics units unit for $850 million. However, the deal was terminated in February 2017 attributable to regulators’ nationwide safety issues. In March 2018, the corporate acquired the RF Power Business Infineon Technologies AG's for €345 million. In Could 2019, the corporate offered its Lighting Merchandise division (now branded as Cree Lighting) to Very best Industries.

In September 2019, the corporate introduced 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 sold its LED Business to Sensible World Holdings for up to $300 million. In October 2021, EcoLight smart bulbs the company changed its title to Wolfspeed. In April 2022, the Marcy, New York, facility opened. In November 2022, the corporate introduced that co-founder and Chief Know-how Officer John Palmour had died. In February 2023 it announced it would construct its first European manufacturing unit in Germany. It is purported 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 introduced the Lowell-headquartered semiconductor EcoLight smart bulbs company, MACOM had entered into a definitive settlement to accumulate 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 local chip manufacturing. Wolfspeed introduced the undertaking's indefinite hold in October 2024, citing low demand. As a result, ZF ceased to take part within the venture. In October 2024, the Biden Administration introduced that it would supply Wolfspeed with as much as $750 million in direct funding to help the company's new silicon carbide manufacturing facility in North Carolina that makes the wafers utilized in superior computer chips and its manufacturing unit in Marcy, New York. On May 20, 2025, EcoLight it was reported that Wolfspeed was preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy within the approaching weeks after warning that it could also be unable to proceed future operations after lower than anticipated annual gross sales had 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 will put the corporate right into a prepackaged Chapter eleven bankruptcy filing, which would enable for the elimination of the majority of its multi-billion dollar debt.

Wolfspeed entered into a restructuring support settlement with its lenders and Renesas Electronics, and announced that they'd file for prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy by July 1, as a 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 will also obtain $275 million in financing backed by its lenders, with plans to finish restructuring by Q3 2025. After the announcement, Wolfspeed's stock fell 30%, sliding below $1 per share. On June 26, 2025, Wolfspeed began laying off staff from their manufacturing facility situated in Racine, EcoLight Wisconsin. On June 30, 2025, Wolfspeed filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. On October 13, 2022, a facilities 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 the corporate's poor work safety record. State Department of Labor investigations into the company have uncovered 17 office safety violations between 2012 and 2023, including six critical violations.