Wolfspeed Wins $1.5 Billion Financing From Chips Act, Apollo

(Bloomberg) — Wolfspeed Inc., a manufacturer of chips used primarily in electric vehicles, is in line to win $750 million in US government grants as well as $750 million in financing led by Apollo Global Management Inc. to support its factory expansion plans.

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The grant from the 2022 Chips and Science Act will cover a portion of the company’s more than $6 billion in planned spending for factories in North Carolina and New York. The projects are anticipated to create more than 2,000 manufacturing jobs and 3,000 construction jobs, the Biden administration said Tuesday in a statement. The grant spurred the financing from Apollo, The Baupost Group, Fidelity Management & Research Co. and Capital Group, according to the statement.

Wolfspeed also plans to tap 25% tax credits for the facilities, and expects to receive more than $1 billion in total refunds, Chief Executive Officer Gregg Lowe said during an earnings presentation in August. It has already accrued around $640 million in refunds, Lowe said.

Wolfspeed’s shares rose 17% in premarket trading on Tuesday before New York exchanges opened. Its stock had declined 74% this year to $11.38 at Monday’s close.

The Chips Act, a landmark bipartisan law championed by President Joe Biden, is designed to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to American soil after decades of production shifting to Asia. Officials have allocated the lion’s share of $39 billion in grant funding from the program, and they’ve signed a final agreement on one of nearly 20 awards announced so far.

The others — including massive grants to companies like Intel Corp. and smaller ones like Wolfspeed’s — are preliminary, subject to due diligence and additional negotiation. After signing final agreements, companies have to meet project-specific benchmarks to receive funding as a reimbursement.

The government and private backing may provide a welcome shot in the arm for Wolfspeed, as the company tries to generate new production that executives promise will provide it a better future. The beleaguered chipmaker last posted annual profit a decade ago and its most recent quarter of positive net income came in 2018.

Wolfspeed’s problems stem from production snarls at a plant that is one of the largest makers of silicon carbide wafers, on which its chips are built. Inadequate supply of those wafers is stifling manufacturing at its chip plant in Mohawk Valley, New York, forcing the company to rely on an older factory that carries higher costs.

Wolfspeed now plans to close that facility and shift production to the newer one, which is one of the two facilities the Chips Act grant would support. The chipmaker is also in an area of growing demand — semiconductors that control power in EVs and other devices — where the use of new materials and techniques promises rewards for leaders.

“As the world’s largest producer of silicon carbide material, we believe we have a compelling proposition for a Chips grant because silicon carbide is considered a matter of national security, is designated a critical material by the US Department of Energy, and is essential to the electric vehicle ecosystem,” Lowe said on the August earnings call.

(Updates with premarket share move in fourth paragraph)