Item 1. Business
Item 1. Business
Overview
Wolfspeed, Inc. (Wolfspeed, we, our, or us) is an innovator of wide bandgap semiconductors, focused on silicon carbide materials and devices for power applications. Our product families include power devices and silicon carbide and gallium nitride (GaN) materials. Our products are targeted for various applications such as electric vehicles, fast charging and renewable energy and storage.
Our materials products and power devices are used in electric vehicles, motor drives, power supplies, solar and transportation applications. Our materials products are also used in military communications, radar, satellite and telecommunication applications.
During and prior to fiscal 2024, we designed, manufactured and sold radio-frequency (RF) devices. We completed the sale of certain assets comprising our former RF product line (the RF Business Divestiture) in the second quarter of fiscal 2024. The RF Business Divestiture represented a strategic shift that had a major effect on our operations and financial results. As a result, we have classified the results and cash flows of the RF product line as discontinued operations in our consolidated statements of operations and consolidated statements of cash flows for all periods presented. Additionally, the related assets and liabilities associated with the transaction are classified as held for sale in the consolidated balance sheet as of June 25, 2023. Unless otherwise noted, discussion within this Annual Report relates to our continuing operations.
The majority of our products are manufactured at our production facilities located in North Carolina, New York and Arkansas. We also use contract manufacturers for certain products and aspects of product fabrication, assembly and packaging. We maintain captive lines at some of our contract manufacturers. We are constructing a new materials manufacturing facility in North Carolina and renovating an epitaxy facility in Texas. We operate research and development facilities in North Carolina, Arkansas and New York.
Wolfspeed, Inc. is a North Carolina corporation established in 1987, and our headquarters are in Durham, North Carolina. For further information about our consolidated revenue and earnings, please see our consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this Annual Report.
Products
Silicon Carbide and GaN Materials
Our silicon carbide materials products consist of silicon carbide bare wafers, epitaxial wafers, and GaN epitaxial layers on silicon carbide wafers. Our silicon carbide materials are targeted for customers who use them to manufacture products for RF, power and other applications. Corporate, government and university customers also buy silicon carbide and GaN materials for research and development directed at RF and power devices.
Power Devices
Our power device products consist of silicon carbide Schottky diodes, metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) and power modules. Our silicon carbide power products provide increased efficiency and faster switching speeds and as a result, reduced system size and weight over comparable silicon power devices. Power products are sold to customers and distributors for use in applications such as electric vehicles, including charging infrastructure, server power supplies, solar inverters, uninterruptible power supplies, industrial power supplies and other applications.
Research and Development
We invest significant resources in research and development. Our research and development activities include efforts to:
• develop silicon carbide materials and fabrication technology for a 200mm platform;
• develop higher performance power devices;
• increase the quality, performance and diameter of our substrate and epitaxial materials; and
• continually improve our manufacturing processes.
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When our customers participate in funding our research and development programs, we recognize the amount funded as a reduction of research and development expenses to the extent that our customers’ funding does not exceed our respective research and development costs. For further information about our research and development costs, see “Research and Development” in Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" of this Annual Report.
Sales and Marketing
We have continued to make investments to expand our sales, marketing and technical applications support, as well as distribution capabilities to further enable new and existing customers to design and implement our silicon carbide and power technology into their products. We have continued to make investments to promote and build market awareness of our Wolfspeed brand. Our sales, marketing and technical applications teams include personnel throughout North America, Asia and Europe.
Customers
In fiscal 2024, 2023 and 2022, we had two, two and three customers, respectively, that each represented more than 10% of our consolidated revenue. These customers, in the aggregate, accounted for 37%, 36% and 48% of our total consolidated revenue in fiscal 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively. For further discussion regarding customer concentration, please see Note 16, “Concentrations of Risk,” in our consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this Annual Report. The loss of any large customer could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
Distribution
A portion of our products are sold to distributors. Distributors stock inventory and sell our products to their own customer base, which may include: value added resellers, manufacturers who incorporate our products into their own manufactured goods and ultimate end users of our products. We also utilize third-party sales representatives who generally do not maintain a product inventory; instead, their customers place orders directly with us or through distributors.
Design-ins
Design-ins are customer commitments to purchase our products and are one of the factors we use to forecast long-term demand and future revenue. To meet the qualification of a design-in, the customer provides us with documentation (e.g., a letter of intent, statement of work or developmental contract) that can include details such as the expected delivery timeline, estimated price, necessary capacity and required support. A design-in, even with a formal commitment, does not always convert to future revenue (a "design-win") for a variety of reasons, including, but not limited to, the customer delaying or abandoning the project, capacity constraints, timeline challenges, and/or technology changes. Therefore, management uses the design-in amount as a guide to forecast future demand but it should not be taken as an absolute indicator of future revenue.
Design-ins for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024 were $9.1 billion, compared with design-ins of approximately $7.9 billion for the fiscal year ended June 25, 2023.
Design-wins
Design-ins are considered design-wins when a customer issues a purchase order for at least 20% of the expected first year revenue. Design-wins reflect each project's entire commitment at the time this criterion is satisfied and should not be taken as an absolute indicator of future revenue. Depending on timing, certain projects may be reflected within a single period's design-in and design-win figures.
Design-wins for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024 were $5.8 billion, compared with design-wins of $1.8 billion for the fiscal year ended June 25, 2023.
Manufacturing
We manufacture silicon carbide substrates, silicon carbide MOSFETs and Schottky diodes and power modules. We utilize manufacturing facilities located in the United States in combination with assembly and test subcontractors throughout Asia. Manufacturing assets are managed together through one centralized organization to ensure we leverage scale in asset utilization, purchasing volumes, and overhead costs across the business.
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Silicon carbide substrate manufacturing occurs in our highly complex materials facility and involves production of a bare wafer substrate with or without epitaxy. Our front-end processes occur in manufacturing facilities called "wafer fabs". These processes involve several hundred manufacturing steps required for imprinting silicon carbide wafers with the precise circuitry required for semiconductor devices to function. Back-end processes include the assembly, test and packaging of semiconductors to make them suitable for use and sale.
Yields in our manufacturing process can vary and are dependent upon multiple factors including product complexity and performance requirements as well as the maturity of the process. In order to maximize both yield and quality, we maintain in-line process monitoring and testing.
Our substrate and wafer fab manufacturing facilities are certified to ISO 9001, IATF 16949, and ISO 14001. Our silicon carbide device fabrication facility in Marcy, New York (the Mohawk Valley Fab) is certified to ISO 9001 and IATF 16949 and is in the process of being certified for ISO 14001.
ISO 9001 is the international standard that specifies requirements for a quality management system and focuses on the ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer requirements. IATF 16949 is the highest international quality standard for the automotive industry. ISO 14001 is an internationally agreed upon standard for an environmental management system.
Sources of Raw Materials
We depend on a number of suppliers for certain raw materials, components and equipment used in manufacturing our products, including certain key materials and equipment used in critical stages of our manufacturing processes. In select cases, we have purchase contracts with suppliers in place to help ensure our supply. In other cases, we purchase items pursuant to discrete purchase orders. Our suppliers are located around the world and can be subject to constraints beyond our control that may limit supply. We believe our current supply of essential materials is sufficient to meet our needs. However, shortages have occurred from time to time and could occur again.
We are focused on forecasting demand with sufficient time necessary to secure raw materials that may have extended lead times and we continue to work with suppliers to develop purchase and capacity agreements that secure supply over extended time periods, including accommodating our suppliers' need for capital investment when needed.
We continue to experience higher prices on our raw materials as a result of inflation pressures, including base price increases and price surcharges. We have mitigated these increases by leveraging our growth to negotiate efficiencies and productivity-based cost reductions.
We have continued to be successful in managing through these current issues and demonstrated the ability to navigate through significant supply challenges. We believe our operations are currently not materially impacted by our ability to source raw materials, components and equipment used in manufacturing our products.
Competition
Silicon Carbide and GaN Materials
We have continued to maintain a well-established leadership position in the sale of silicon carbide wafer and silicon carbide and GaN epitaxy products. As market adoption of the technology grows with rapidly expanding power device designs, we have experienced increased competition from companies such as Coherent, Inc., SiCrystal GmbH, IQE plc and Resonac Holdings Corporation in the United States, Europe and Japan. In China, we have observed increased competition from companies such as SICC Co., Ltd. and EpiWorld International Co., Ltd. We believe our leading technology and leveraged production scale position us to reliably supply production volumes to the device manufacturers in the market.
Power Devices
Our silicon carbide power devices compete with silicon carbide power semiconductor solutions offered by Infineon Technologies AG, ON Semiconductor Corporation, Rohm Co. Ltd., and ST Microelectronics N.V., as well as an increasing number of smaller competitors. Our silicon carbide products also compete with silicon semiconductor devices offered by a variety of manufacturers. Our power products compete in the power semiconductor market on the basis of performance, reliability and overall system price.
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Patents and Other Intellectual Property Rights
We believe it is important to protect our investment in technology by obtaining and enforcing intellectual property rights, including rights under patent, trademark, trade secret and copyright laws. We seek to protect inventions we consider significant by applying for patents in the United States and other countries when appropriate. We have also acquired, through license grants, purchases and assignments, rights to patents on inventions originally developed by others. As of June 30, 2024, we owned or were the exclusive licensee of 552 issued United States patents and approximately 1,048 foreign patents with various expiration dates extending up to 2049, with certain patents expiring in the near term. We do not consider our business to be materially dependent upon any one patent, and we believe our business will not be materially adversely affected by the expiration of any one patent. For proprietary technology that is not patented, we generally seek to protect the technology and related know-how and information as trade secrets by keeping confidential the information that we believe provides us with a competitive advantage. We attempt to create strong brands for our products and promote our products through trademarks that distinguish them in the market. We may license to our customers use of our trademarks in connection with the sale of our products, and we monitor for the proper and authorized use of our trademarks.
Licensing activities and lawsuits to enforce intellectual property rights, particularly patent rights, are a common aspect of the semiconductor industry, and we attempt to ensure respect for our intellectual property rights through appropriate actions. The breadth of our intellectual property rights and the extent to which they can be successfully enforced varies across jurisdictions. We both make and receive inquiries regarding possible patent infringements and possible violations of other intellectual property rights in the normal course of business. Depending on the circumstances, we may seek to negotiate a license or other acceptable resolution. If we are unable to achieve a resolution by agreement, we may seek to enforce our rights or defend our position through litigation. Patent litigation in particular is expensive and the outcome is often uncertain. We believe that the strength of our portfolio of patent rights is important in helping us resolve or avoid such disputes with other companies in our industry.
Governmental Regulation
We are subject to a variety of federal, state, local and foreign provisions regulating the discharge of materials into the environment or otherwise relating to the protection of the environment. These include statutory and regulatory provisions under which we are responsible for the management of hazardous materials we use and the disposition of hazardous wastes resulting from our manufacturing processes. Failure to comply with such provisions could result in fines and other liabilities to the government or third parties, injunctions requiring us to suspend or curtail operations or other remedies, and could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Increasing public attention has been focused on the environmental impact of semiconductor manufacturing operations. We, along with the rest of the semiconductor industry, are subject to variable interpretations and governmental priorities concerning environmental laws and regulations.
We endorse and adhere to Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) standards for all our sites. It is our EHS goal to design and develop products safely, that realize energy efficiency, minimize environmental impacts, and have sustainable life cycles. In this manner, we are striving to continuously improve our EHS performance and reduce the overall impacts of our manufacturing processes. To further ensure that we can implement such standards, we are dedicated to:
• providing a safe and healthy work environment for our employees;
• complying with regulatory and other requirements;
• using natural resources, energy, and materials efficiently;
• substituting sustainable resources in place of non-renewable resources;
• reusing or recycling materials wherever technically possible and economically reasonable;
• minimizing waste and disposing of waste safely and responsibly;
• sourcing raw material responsibly;
• implementing specific measures to prevent and minimize hazards to humans; and the environment including pollution prevention; and
• consulting with and encouraging the participation of workers and workers’ representatives, as applicable.
Our EHS management systems in our manufacturing facilities in Durham and Research Triangle Park, North Carolina are certified to ISO 14001:2015 for environmental management. The benefits of implementing environmental and safety management systems include improved risk management, cost savings, meeting external stakeholder expectations, ensuring compliance with environmental and occupational safety laws, and decreasing our environmental footprint through discovering new possibilities for energy, water and waste usage reductions.
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We are also subject to import-export controls, tariffs and other trade-related regulations and restrictions in countries in which we have operations or otherwise do business. These controls, tariffs, regulations, and restrictions may have a material impact on our business, including our ability to sell products and to manufacture or source components.
Working Capital
For a discussion of our working capital practices, see “Liquidity and Capital Resources” in Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations," of this Annual Report.
Human Capital
Employees
As of June 30, 2024, we employed 5,013 regular full and part-time employees. We also employ individuals on a temporary full-time basis and use the services of contractors as necessary. Certain employees in various countries outside of the United States are subject to laws providing representation rights.
Employee Retention and Development
We believe that our future success largely depends upon our continued ability to identify, attract, motivate and retain qualified personnel. Core to our ability to attract and retain talent is our high-performance culture, which is based on our three central values of (1) safety, integrity and respect, (2) ownership and accountability, and (3) ingenuity and passion. We are committed to creating and sustaining a culture where all employees are engaged and can contribute to their full potential. We aim to provide our employees with competitive compensation, as well as opportunities for equity ownership and developmental programs that enable continued learning and growth. We endeavor to utilize recruiting practices that yield qualified and dedicated employees who are driven to achieve our vision.
We are committed to offering an environment in which employees are ensured equal job opportunities and have a chance for advancement. We also have initiatives in place to reduce our global employee turnover rates, which are monitored and reviewed quarterly. Our goal is to ensure employees can find development and career growth without having to leave Wolfspeed.
Compensation and Benefits
We are focused on offering competitive compensation and comprehensive benefit packages designed to promote the physical and emotional well-being and financial health of our employees. In addition to base pay, our total compensation package includes items such as bonuses, stock-based compensation, employee stock purchase plans and employee referral bonuses. Our benefits package includes employee learnings, health and welfare, tuition reimbursement, student loan repayment, several wellness and emotional support options, adoption assistance and a family care program. We offer a 'work where it works' arrangement that allows employees who are able to perform their job duties from an off-campus location to have the flexibility of working remotely full-time or part-time. Additionally, we sponsor a 401(k) employee benefit plan for our United States based employees and we match a defined percentage of employee contributions.
Health and Safety
The safety, health, and overall well-being of our employees and contractors is integrated into the way we do business. We aim to provide a safe and healthy work environment through various measures, including accountability for health and safety performance with line management, setting acceptable levels of risk based on government regulation or industry best practice, and evaluating health and safety incidents to prevent recurrence, among other programs.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
We believe diversity, equity, and inclusion drives better business results and makes all of us better employees and people. We are striving to build an environment where inclusivity is real and active, rather than theoretical and static. We celebrate our employees’ differences and authenticity, and understand that diverse ideas, perspectives, thinking styles, and backgrounds produce higher quality decisions, enabling us to solve problems other companies consider to be impossible. Our efforts to foster a diverse and inclusive workplace include Employee Resources Groups, a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion leadership team that partners with our Human Resources department and various scholarship programs in our surrounding communities. We believe these initiatives help contribute to the development of future leaders, increased employee engagement and expanded market reach.
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Available Information
Our website address is www.wolfspeed.com and our investor relations website is located at https://investor.wolfspeed.com. Our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, proxy statements, statements of changes in beneficial ownership and amendments to those reports are available for free on our investor relations website as soon as reasonably practicable after these are electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. The contents of our website, including our investor relations website, are not incorporated by reference into this filing or any other report we file with or furnish to the SEC. We have no duty to update or revise any forward-looking statements in this Annual Report or in other reports filed with the SEC, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless we are required to do so by law. The SEC maintains a website (www.sec.gov) that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC.