© 2024 254 North Front Street, Suite 300, Wilmington, NC 28401 | 910.343.1640
News Classical 91.3 Wilmington 92.7 Wilmington 96.7 Southport
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE CLOSURE: UPDATES, RESOURCES, AND CONTEXT

President Biden to visit Durham-based Wolfspeed to kick off 'Investing in America Tour'

President Joe Biden speaks at the Green Road Community Center in Raleigh, N.C., Thursday, June 24, 2021. Biden is in North Carolina to meet with frontline workers and volunteers and speak about the importance of getting vaccinated.
Susan Walsh
/
AP
FILE — President Joe Biden speaks at the Green Road Community Center in Raleigh, N.C., Thursday, June 24, 2021.

President Joe Biden will be in North Carolina on Tuesday as part of a tour to promote his economic agenda.

Biden will visit the Durham-based company Wolfspeed, which recently announced an expansion, including a new computer chip facility in Chatham County that will have an estimated 1,800 jobs. The state offered about a billion dollars in incentives to meet that goal.

Wolfspeed used to manufacture LED light bulbs under the name Cree. The company sold off that part of the business, changed its name and shifted to building semiconductors in 2021.

Wolfspeed will be the first stop for Biden in what the White House is calling the “Investing in America Tour.” The tour is intended to highlight how investments from the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the American Rescue Plan are “unleashing a manufacturing boom,” and “lowering costs for hardworking families, and creating jobs that don't require a four-year degree across the country,” according to a statement from the White House.

The president is celebrating recent job growth as well as the successful passage of bills designed to reduce inflation and improve infrastructure.

Biden, the First Lady, Vice President Kamala Harris and other members of the cabinet plan to visit more than 20 states as part of the tour.

According to the White House, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo will travel to North Carolina within the next week “to visit manufacturers producing fiber optic cable.” Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan – a Goldsboro native who previously worked in Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration – also has a visit to North Carolina scheduled.

Will Michaels is WUNC's Weekend Host and Reporter.
Mitchell Northam is a Digital Producer for WUNC. His past work has been featured at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, SB Nation, the Orlando Sentinel and the Associated Press. He is a graduate of Salisbury University and is also a voter in the AP Top 25 poll for women's college basketball.