Wolfspeed hires a new CEO as it still waits for CHIPS Act money
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Wolfspeed's under-construction factory in Chatham County. Photo: Zachery Eanes/Axios
Wolfspeed, the Durham-based semiconductor maker, has hired Robert Feurle, a veteran of the chips industry, as its next CEO — a hiring that comes at a critical time for the company's future.
Why it matters: Wolfspeed, which specializes in silicon carbide materials and devices, is close to finishing a $5 billion materials plant in Chatham County that is says will one day employ 1,800 workers.
- But the company has struggled financially in recent years, firing its CEO last year, closing one of its factories and conducting several rounds of job cuts — all while its stock price has plummeted.
Driving the news: Fuerle's hiring was announced on Thursday, with Wolfspeed's interim CEO and executive chairman, Thomas Werner, saying Fuerle has the experience to operate its factories more efficiently — something analysts have complained the company has not done consistently.
- Fuerle, a German-American dual citizen, most recently was an executive at the German chipmaker ams-OSRAM — but he has previously worked in the U.S. at the chipmaker Micron.
- Fuerle will be based in Durham going forward, Werner said.
State of play: The hiring comes as Wolfspeed continues to wait on final CHIPS Act funding approval from the federal government — though that Biden-era program's future seems murkier after President Trump called it "horrible."
- "We are managing our company to not be overly reliant" on CHIPS Act grants or tax incentives, Werner told reporters Thursday.
- "We would be able to accelerate our growth and employ more people, of course, with both the tax credits and the CHIPS Act," he added.
- Werner has been to Washington several times in recent weeks and met with both North Carolina Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd, and the company has highlighted the importance of building silicon carbide — a material the government has labeled as critical — in the U.S.
What they're saying: Werner said he expects Wolfspeed to know about the fate of its CHIPS Act grant by late summer, though the company expects the legislation to change in some fashion.
- "The important thing is that [the CHIPS Act] will evolve and that we're constructively engaged [with the government], so we're not projecting at some distant level of communication," he said.