Wolfspeed cuts 1000 jobs in US
Wolfspeed is closing its 150mm silicon carbide plant in the US and cutting 20% of its staff, or 1000 jobs, in a $450m restructuring plan.
The company has 5000 staff, who were notified of the cuts yesterday. These will take place over the next six to 12 months as the company moves to a pure 200mm wafer operation.
“The actions taken under the 2025 Restructuring Plan will ultimately result in the closure of the Company’s 150mm device fabrication facility in Durham, North Carolina as well as a realignment of related activities,” it said.
The move will cost $400m to $450m, with $60m in involuntary and voluntary severance costs, $125m of other closure-related costs, and approximately $250 million of asset-related charges and other non-cash costs.
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This comes as the costs of ramping up its 200mm wafer production plant and fab in the US is hit by the slowdown in the market for electric vehicles. The company has design ins of $1.5bn and design wins of $1.3bn but saw revenues of $195m for the first quarter of 2025, down from $197 the previous quarter. The 200mm fab at Mohawk contributed a quarter of that, at $49m.
“This quarter we took action to solidify the capital structure, simplifying our business to accelerate structural profitability and support the build out of our state of-the-art silicon carbide facilities. We will have a 200mm silicon carbide footprint at Mohawk Valley and North Carolina materials factories that we target to generate approximately $3 billion in revenue annually,” said Gregg Lowe, CEO of Wolfspeed.
“To drive operational improvements, we are taking action to enhance efficiency, align our business with current market conditions and become the first silicon carbide company to transition to pure-play 200mm. The transition to a fully 200mm platform allows us to take further initiatives to streamline our cost structure, including closing our manual Durham 150mm fab, other manufacturing footprint rationalization, and reducing our workforce.”
“We delivered 2.5 times year-over-year growth in our automotive business in the first quarter, and we expect our EV revenue to continue to grow throughout calendar 2025, as the total number of car models using a Wolfspeed silicon carbide solution in the power train increased by 4x from 2023 to 2024 and is expected to grow by another approximately 75% year over year in 2025.”
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