DURHAM – Wolfspeed exceeded estimates for the company’s first quarter and outpaced both revenue and gross margin compared to a year ago.
But the chipmaker, which is investing billions of dollars in Chatham County, failed to meet investor’s expectations.
According to Investor’s Business Daily, Wolfspeed “lost an adjusted 4 cents a share on sales of $241.3 million in the quarter ended Sept. 25. Analysts polled by FactSet expected Wolfspeed to lose 5 cents a share on sales of $239.8 million. In the year-earlier period, Wolfspeed lost 21 cents a share on sales of $156.6 million.”
While the company’s stock price rose during the business day, it has fallen during after hours trading, following the earnings report
Wolfspeed CEO Gregg Lowe pointed toward supply chain shortages as the sole reason the company’s performance didn’t meet expectations.
“Our near term revenue guidance is impacted solely by manufacturing and supply challenges in our current footprint, as our near term demand continues to grow and the long term demand continues to strengthen,” said Lowe in a statement. “As we enter this period of accelerated growth, we need to manage the near-term puts and takes as we position ourselves to take advantage of what we believe to be a multi-decade opportunity.”
The company invested hundreds of millions of dollars in a silicon-carbide semiconductor wafer fabrication factory in Mohawk Valley and announced earlier this year it planned to construct a facility in Chatham County, investing $5 billion.
Wolfspeed announces $5 billion investment in Chatham County, largest in NC history
Future opportunity strong
Lowe told WRAL TechWire earlier this year that the company was seeing increasing demand from automotive clients, particularly for electric vehicles, due to the efficiency gains that a silicon carbide semiconductor yields compared to silicon semiconductors.
VinFast announced an automotive assembly plant for its electric vehicles that will be based in Chatham County earlier this year, following an announcement from Toyota in December 2021 that the company will build an electric battery plant in Randolph County.
“The EV opportunity and the growing adoption of Silicon Carbide in the automotive and broader industrial markets creates powerful tailwinds for our next-gen solutions, giving us confidence in our strategy as we prepare to invest further in the business,” said Lowe. “As it relates to further investment, during the quarter, we announced the construction of the world’s largest Silicon Carbide materials factory in Siler City, North Carolina, underpinning our plans for increasing power device production at Mohawk Valley, where the ramp continues to progress well and we plan to tool out the rest of the fab.
All told, Lowe was optimistic about the outlook for the company.
“We have made these investments with one goal in mind, to quickly capitalize on trends and solidify our leading position as a pure-play, vertically-integrated Silicon Carbide company,” Lowe concluded.
