Wolfspeed has pivoted before. Until the early 2020s, the large Durham company made both LED lights and a unique semiconductor called silicon carbide. Then, faced with subsidized competition out of China, Wolfspeed ditched its LED division and its original name (Cree) to become, as they say in the business, a “pure-play” silicon carbide supplier.
Today, the chipmaker isn’t diversifying from silicon carbide, but four months removed from bankruptcy, it aspires to evolve again. “At the end of the day, what we’re doing is we’re pretty much looking to pivot away from being a one-trick pony focused on EVs,” Wolfspeed CEO Robert Feurle told investors on an earnings call Wednesday.
Under his predecessor, Wolfspeed bet big on a U.S. electric vehicle revolution powered by lighter, hyperefficient silicon carbide chips. It took out massive loans to finance new SiC factories in New York State and North Carolina’s Chatham County, debt that hastened its plunge into Chapter 11. The company’s creditors became its new shareholders post-bankruptcy; its old shareholders got pennies on the dollar…