Durham, North Carolina-based Wolfspeed, a developer and manufacturer of wide-bandgap semiconductors, focused on silicon carbide and gallium nitride materials, is restructuring, closing its Durham device fabrication plant and implementing a 20% reduction in its workforce. as it transitions to a new product offering.
Approximately 1,000 employees will be impacted by the restructuring.
According to CEO Gregg Lowe, "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 200-millimeter. The transition to a fully 200-millimeter platform allows us to take further initiatives to streamline our cost structure, including closing our manual Durham 150-millimeter Fab, other manufacturing footprint rationalization, and reducing our workforce.”
Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. We see good people being laid off through no fault of their own. Just because something terrible hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. While many employees can read the writing on the wall, why do most assume it’s targeted at someone else? Are you now wondering, Am I Next?