Equinor just photobombed Trump’s anti-wind rally with a billion-dollar check.

Yesterday my wife asked me, “why does Labor Day even exist?” and I had no clue. After a quick Google search (which was about as thrilling as reading a W-9), I found out it’s supposed to celebrate “the social and economic achievements of American workers.” Which I read as an excuse to get blackout drunk on a Monday while pretending you’re honoring your great-grandpa who worked at the steel mill. Anyway… Happy Labor Day.

Now, naturally I assumed it would be one of those market days where the biggest headline is “Warren Buffett Gets New Dentures.” But nope… instead, we got one of the strangest financial mashups in recent memory: a Norwegian oil giant just rode in to save a Danish wind company that Trump’s been trying to send to the shadow realm. If that sounds backwards, it is. Kinda like McDonald’s bailing out WeightWatchers or Philip Morris buying into a juicing startup.

If you’ve been following along, Orsted, once the world’s largest offshore wind developer, has been down bad. Its stock has collapsed about 90% since 2021, largely thanks to rising costs, bad timing, and Trump’s relentless hostility toward offshore wind. The most devastating hit came just last week when the administration ordered Orsted to halt its $2.4 billion Revolution Wind project off Rhode Island. The project was already 80% complete and was supposed to generate enough clean energy to power around 350,000 homes in New England. Instead, it’s now sitting idle under the label of “national security concerns.” To make things worse, the Department of Transportation yanked another $679 million in federal funding earmarked for offshore wind infrastructure.

(Source: The Guardian)

And then this morning, like the most unlikely white knight you could imagine, Equinor showed up. Despite being an oil company, it pledged nearly $1 billion toward Orsted’s planned $9.4 billion rights issue, held onto its 10% stake, and even grabbed a board nomination. On the surface, that’s a big vote of confidence for a company most of Wall Street had already written off. But there’s more to it than charity… this move also gives Equinor more control over one of the biggest players in offshore wind, and at a price tag that looks like an armed robbery compared to what Orsted was worth just a few years ago.

Of course, there’s plenty of risk here. Equinor already managed to lose half of its original $2.5 billion investment in Orsted, so this isn’t exactly a “picture-perfect balance sheet” moment. But instead of cutting their losses, they’re doubling down on a hand the market basically thinks belongs in the muck. RBC analysts called it “double or nothing in Vegas,” which is pretty on brand… except the dealer here is Trump’s Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, who’s already declared wind projects “a waste of resources.” So it’s not an overexaggeration to say that the U.S. political support for offshore wind is about as stable as a Kardashian marriage.

But if you’re sitting in Equinor’s chair, the move isn’t crazy. Norway’s pushing hard on climate goals, Equinor has promised 10-12 gigawatts of renewable capacity by 2030, and buying up Orsted stock at rock-bottom prices is way cheaper than pouring billions into brand-new projects. So make no mistake… this isn’t charity. It’s a calculated hedge and, more importantly, a way for Big Oil to buy some green street cred. Which, let’s be honest, might be the most on-brand energy trade of 2025.

Orsted’s stock did get a quick jolt (up about 3-4% on the news) but it eventually slid back. That was the market’s way of saying, “I’m happy for you, but I don’t actually believe in you.” Still, with the Danish government holding 50% and Equinor now writing billion-dollar checks, more than 60% of shareholders are locked in for the rights issue. That all but guarantees Orsted will scrape together the cash it needs to survive in the short term.

So Trump can keep trying to sabotage renewable energy, but if Big Oil keeps propping it up, this fall could turn into one hell of a battle to watch. Who knows… maybe next we’ll see Amazon rescuing Barnes & Noble for old time’s sake. Stranger things have happened… and this Equinor–Orsted alliance is proof of it.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in Google, McDonald’s, and Amazon as mentioned in the article.