At the festivities, in keeping with China's push for futuristic technologies, tiny chips made in Durham will light up the Beijing Olympics. When the games open tonight, an estimated 4 billion people worldwide will watch dazzling, computerized light shows centered partly around the iconic Bird's Nest and Water Cube buildings, those buildings' lights were built using more than 750,000 red, blue and green LED chips made at Cree's factory in Durham.In addition, Cree LEDs will illuminate massive video boards in Beijing and TV kiosks throughout the Olympics complex.
To capture more of the market for energy efficient lighting, Cree's light-emitting diodes were mostly used to illuminate cell phones, signs, car dashboards and other electronics five years ago. Now the company's LEDs can be found in parking-garage lights in Raleigh, high-end homes in Durham, streetlights in Anchorage and office lights across Asia. LEDs use less power and last longer than traditional light bulbs.
The Olympics gig started for Cree when a Chinese contractor bidding to build the National Aquatics Center, aka the Water Cube, asked for Cree's help with the lighting, the original design of the Beijing National Stadium, or Bird's Nest, included traditional fluorescent bulbs. But once officials saw how LEDs compared with the Water Cube's lights, they ordered them replaced with Cree LEDs. The buildings were finished in January, but Cree had to change some lighting fixtures during tests.
Cree expands in China
Cree last year bought a Chinese lighting company to expand its foothold in that country. While Cree has sales, marketing and research staff in China, it still makes its chips only in Durham. The chips are built into LEDs, which are then packaged into lights, with some of that work now done in China. Even without much mainstream marketing -- Cree isn't an Olympics sponsor -- the company stands to gain from the attention, especially in China,
Cree's challenge will be to transform the exposure into new business, such as contracts with companies installing lights on the new buildings rising in China, China and Hong Kong account for about a third of Cree's business. Cree plans to highlight its Olympic efforts as it markets its LED lights around the world.
