Ørsted shares sank to an all-time low Monday after the Trump administration ordered the Danish energy company to halt work on its nearly completed $1.5 billion Revolution Wind project off Rhode Island, heightening financial pressure on Europe's largest offshore wind developer.
Shares tumbled as much as 18% in Copenhagen trading, with the stock hitting record lows, according to LSEG data. The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued the stop-work order late Friday, citing "concerns related to the protection of national security interests." Ørsted said it was complying with the order while "evaluating all options to resolve the matter expeditiously," including legal proceedings.
The Revolution Wind project is 80% finished, with 45 of 65 turbines installed. Once operational, it was expected to generate enough electricity to power more than 350,000 homes. "The financial consequences of the stop-work order will at best be the ongoing costs of the work being stopped," Jacob Pedersen, head of equity research at Sydbank, said in a note. "In the worst-case scenario, the Revolution Wind Project would never supply electricity to the U.S." He warned that such an outcome could force Ørsted into "a double-digit billion write-down and significant additional costs to get out of contracts."
The order strikes at a crucial moment for Ørsted, which earlier this month announced plans for a 60 billion Danish kroner ($9.4 billion) rights issue to stabilize its finances. The Danish government, which owns a 50.1% stake in Ørsted, has pledged support. But analysts say U.S. intervention could jeopardize the fundraising. Pierre-Alexandre Ramondenc, an analyst at AlphaValue, said: "The news came as a major shock and amounts to nothing less than political hostage-taking by the U.S. administration, given the project's advanced stage."
Shares in the company had already fallen more than 30% this year before Monday's selloff, reflecting investor unease over rising costs and policy uncertainty in the U.S. offshore wind sector. The capital-raising plan is designed to reassure markets, but Pedersen cautioned that "this will, by all accounts, increase the capital raising requirement to significantly more than DKK 60 billion" if the project fails to deliver power.
President Trump has repeatedly voiced disdain for wind energy, describing turbines as "the worst form of energy, the most expensive form of energy" and claiming they "kill the birds." On his first day in office in January, he suspended new offshore wind leases and has since escalated his attacks, recently calling wind and solar "THE SCAM OF THE CENTURY!" in a social media post.
