Chip maker Wolfspeed, formerly Cree, relists on the NYSE

Gregg Lowe, Wolfspeed CEO, discusses company's New York Stock Exchange trading debut following rebrand, and new partnership with General Motors.

Video Transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: Well, the company formerly known as Cree is re-listing on the New York Stock Exchange under a new name Wolfspeed and the ticker, WOLF. The company in the middle of a four-year transition to refocus its priorities and doubling down on the semiconductor space.

Let's bring in Gregg Lowe, who is the CEO of Wolfspeed. And Gregg, certainly a very exciting day for your company. Talk to me about this transition that you have undergone within the company and why now you see this massive opportunity in the semiconductor space at a time when there are global shortages.

GREGG LOWE: We've really focused our business on the silicon carbide technology and become a powerhouse semiconductor company. Silicon carbide is an alternative to silicon for semiconductors. Most of the industry has been on silicon for the last 50 years or so. And our company is focused on silicon carbide.

The big difference here is that silicon carbide is enormously more efficient than silicon. And what that translates into, for instance, an electric vehicle, is that your car, if you use silicon carbide, your car will have a longer range than if you use silicon. And it's 5% to 15% longer. And range, of course, is a huge [INAUDIBLE] for electric vehicles. And so it's really picking up a lot of speed in the EV industry.

The other thing that silicon carbide really helps enable is fast charging. You guys were just talking to the Wallbox guys earlier on. You know, fast charging and rapid charging is another key element for the industry. And silicon carbide is dramatically better than silicon and being efficient with these fast charging. So, faster charging, longer range. That's what silicon carbide is all about. And that's what our focus is.

JARED BLIKRE: Now, Gregg, we want to ask you how the supply chain shortage is affecting your company and your industry. We know it's hampered a lot of chipmakers and spread into the auto industry, a bunch of other industries. I read a report over the weekend that there is a silicon shortage worldwide, even though the mineral makes up about 1/3 or is, at least, one of the most prevalent in the Earth's crust. Are these problems affecting you as well?

GREGG LOWE: You know, the issues with silicon is the lack of investment in wafer fab manufacturing. And it's not so much the raw materials. And so, you know, to build a wafer fab from start to finish, it's at least two years, a little bit longer. We invested a little over two years ago and began expanding our capacity by 30 times, 3-0 times, over the next few years. And that capacity expansion is just about completing and going online already in early '22.

So just as the adoption of electric vehicles starts to take off and the adoption of silicon carbide takes off, as is evidence with the announcement that we made today about the partnership with General Motors on silicon carbide, just as all of that is taking off, we are releasing this new capacity into the market. So it's a huge opportunity for us. And it's one that we had the sort of foreshadowing, if you will, to invest in this before the chip crisis happened.

AKIKO FUJITA: And Gregg, I want to get back to some of those benefits you highlighted about silicon carbide versus silicon, which is more widely used in semiconductors today. If we're talking about it allowing for cars to charge faster, for example, is that the direction that automakers are all moving in? And if that's the case, is there-- can the current capacity meet the demand?

GREGG LOWE: You know, there's two things the car manufacturers are driving. One is extending the range of electric vehicles. And you've seen the average range go from a little over 100 to a little over 200 to most new electric vehicles coming out have 300 plus mile ranges. And in fact, some of them have over 500 miles of range. So that's pretty stout in terms of what customers are looking for.

And then in terms of charging, some of the newer, faster chargers are adding something like 300 miles of range in 15 to 20 minutes of charging. That's not quite a gas station, but it's getting pretty close. And so, you know, the behaviors of people in terms of their adoption of electric vehicles is going to be greatly enhanced by these two characteristics. And both of those are driven by the adoption of silicon carbide.

JARED BLIKRE: And I want to pose the same question that I asked to the Wallbox guest that you referenced, which is this infrastructure bill that we've been talking about. Any key provisions in it that you've seen or proposals that would affect your business, either for better or for worse?

GREGG LOWE: You know, it's amazing. Around the world, different countries-- you know, obviously, the US is one of them, but all the European Union states, you know, Japan as well, they've had some element of their COVID recovery that's focused on a green recovery from an infrastructure perspective. And this bodes really well for the adoption and the transition from the internal combustion engine to electric vehicles.

And, you know, so all of these provisions are definitely supporting a growing market for us. And basically, what we're seeing, you know, in this transition is a pulling in of the adoption rate of electric vehicles and an increasing amount of electric vehicles penetrating the market. So all of these-- the countries have different elements of emphasis on the infrastructure. But there's really a consistent theme of, let's build back, you know, in a green kind of way. And electric vehicles play very, very nicely in that role.

AKIKO FUJITA: Yeah, Gregg, I feel like we could have an hour long conversation talking about the complexities of the space, but unfortunately, we have to cut it there. Good to talk to you today, Gregg Lowe, Wolfspeed CEO.