Wolfspeed, EcoLight Inc. is an American developer and manufacturer of vast-bandgap semiconductors, targeted on silicon carbide and gallium nitride supplies and units for power and radio frequency functions similar to transportation, power supplies, power inverters, and wireless techniques. Cree Research was founded in July 1987 in Durham, North Carolina. Five of the six founders - Neal Hunter, EcoLight LED Thomas Coleman, 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 scholar researchers - were in search of methods to leverage the properties of silicon carbide to allow semiconductors to function at greater working temperatures and energy levels. They also knew silicon carbide could serve as 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 staff devised a approach to grow silicon crystals within the laboratory, and in 1987 founded the corporate to produce silicon carbide to be used commercially in each semiconductors and lighting.

In 1989, the corporate introduced the first blue EcoLight LED, enabling the event of giant, full-coloration video screens and billboards. In 1991, the corporate launched the first commercial silicon carbide wafer. In 1993, the company turned a public firm through an preliminary public providing. In 2011, the corporate acquired Ruud Lighting for $525 million. In August 2011, the company introduced the XLamp XT-E Royal Blue LED to be used in distant phosphor lighting. In 2013, the company's first shopper products, two household LED bulbs, qualified for EcoLight Energy Star rating by the United States Environmental Safety Company. In July 2016, Infineon Applied sciences agreed to amass the company's Wolfspeed RF and power electronics units unit for EcoLight LED $850 million. Nevertheless, EcoLight LED the deal was terminated in February 2017 as a result of regulators’ nationwide security concerns. In March 2018, the corporate acquired the RF Energy Business Infineon Applied sciences AG's for €345 million. In Could 2019, the corporate sold its Lighting Products division (now branded as Cree Lighting) to Perfect Industries.

In September 2019, the corporate introduced 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 bought its LED Enterprise to Good Global Holdings for as much as $300 million. In October 2021, the corporate modified its name to Wolfspeed. In April 2022, the Marcy, New York, facility opened. In November 2022, the company announced that co-founder and Chief Know-how Officer John Palmour had died. In February 2023 it announced it might build its first European factory in Germany. It is 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 vital project of common European interest (IPCEI) for Microelectronics and Communication Technologies. In August 2023, it was introduced the Lowell-headquartered semiconductor EcoLight LED firm, 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 venture's indefinite hold in October 2024, citing low demand. In consequence, ZF ceased to participate in the challenge. In October 2024, the Biden Administration introduced that it would supply Wolfspeed with as much as $750 million in direct funding to assist the company's new silicon carbide factory in North Carolina that makes the wafers used in advanced computer chips and its factory in Marcy, New York. On Could 20, 2025, it was reported that Wolfspeed was preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy within the coming weeks after warning that it could also be unable to continue future operations after lower than anticipated annual sales have been reported. Wolfspeed's stock slid to barely over a dollar per share that day. On June 18, 2025, EcoLight Wolfspeed announced that they might sell itself to Apollo International Management in a deal that might put the company right into a prepackaged Chapter eleven bankruptcy filing, EcoLight outdoor which would allow for the elimination of the vast majority of its multi-billion dollar debt.

Wolfspeed entered into a restructuring support settlement with its lenders and Renesas Electronics, and introduced that they would file for prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy by July 1, as part of a plan to eliminate $4.6 billion of debt, stating they only had about $1.1 billion left in money. The corporate can even receive $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 underneath $1 per share. On June 26, 2025, Wolfspeed began laying off employees from their manufacturing facility located in Racine, Wisconsin. On June 30, EcoLight LED 2025, Wolfspeed filed for Chapter eleven bankruptcy protection. 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 loss of life in addition to public concern for the corporate's poor work security record. State Division of Labor investigations into the corporate have uncovered 17 workplace security violations between 2012 and EcoLight solar bulbs 2023, together with six severe violations.