Navitas CEO makes robust response to patent lawsuits
Earlier this month SiC specialist Wolfspeed filed a patent lawsuit against Navitas Semiconductor over GaN and SiC chips. The Japanese chip firm Renesas (which has a stake in Wolfspeed) has now alleged that Navitas misappropriated GaN chip trade-secrets by poaching Renesas employees.
During an upbeat Q2 earnings call this week, Navitas CEO Christopher Allexandre (pictured above) commented on the litigation for the first time describing the Wolfspeed case as "the last step in a campaign of harassment and intimidation.”
The Wolfspeed lawsuit asserts that Navitas' GaN-based FETs, GeneSiC MOSFETs and SiCPAK modules infringe multiple Wolfspeed patents.
Renesas alleges that Allexandre, and Navitas executive Feili Cheng, diverted Renesas’s confidential information concerning GaN chips to Navitas.
Allexandre joined Navitas in September 2025. Prior to that, he served as SVP and general manager of the Power Division at Renesas Electronics, where he oversaw the company’s $2.5 billion power management business.
Puttting context around the two cases, Allexandre said: "Wolfspeed already sued us because we stopped buying wafers from them a while back. Then they sued two of our employees that worked at Wolfspeed in the past, including one that they had RIF'd [lost their job due to a Reduction in Force], in their cost reduction effort a while back."
He added that Wolfspeed then tried to litigate and failed when third-party recruiters were calling Wolfspeed employees for job positions Navitas had online on the web.
The Wolfspeed patent infringement case, he said "Looks like a desperate move."
On the Renesas case he said: "Based on the public record, Renesas would own up to 39 percent of Wolfspeed. So is all this a coincidence, the week before the earnings call?" (The beneficial ownership percentage refers to an SEC filing from March 31st 2026).
He added: "You don't start litigation like this, if you are winning market share, [and] your technology is superior."
Allexandre concluded: "We respect IP and technology. Actually, the company is a result of decades of innovation coming from start-ups in both GaN and SiC.
"We let everybody draw their own conclusion on why now Wolfspeed and their major shareholder are running to the cow house instead of competing in a fair way in the marketplace."
