[3] Ørsted developed approximately 30% of the global offshore wind power installed capacity, excluding mainland China.

The company was founded in 1972 to manage gas and oil resources in the Danish sector of the North Sea.

After some years, the company was renamed to Dansk Olie og Naturgas A/S (DONG), meaning Danish Oil and Natural Gas.

[6][7][8] In 2005, DONG Energy acquired 10.34% in the Ormen Lange gas field (operated by Shell).

[11] At about the time of the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, DONG Energy adopted the "85/15 vision" strategy, with the aim of changing from a company with 85% of activities fossil fuel based to a company 85% based on green energy activities.

[19] In September 2013, DONG Energy sold a power cable accessing the London Array wind farm to its partners, E.ON and Masdar for around $728 million.

[25] of which DONG Energy had 3,000 MW in 2015;[26] As part of the restructuring plan to fund offshore wind projects, in January 2014 the company sold an 18% stake to New Energy Investment S.a.r.l., a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs, while Danish pension funds, ATP and PFA Pension acquired 4.9% and 1.8% accordingly.

The deal was heavily criticised and caused a split of the ruling coalition of Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

At the same time, it divested its ownership shares of five Norwegian oil and gas fields to Faroe Petroleum.

[33] In 2017, the company decided to phase-out the use of coal for power generation, and it sold off its oil and gas business to Ineos for US$1.05 billion.

[34][35] After selling its oil and gas business the company announced its transition to renewable energy was fulfilled and changed its name to Ørsted after the Danish scientist Hans Christian Ørsted, citing that DONG was inappropriate considering they no longer owned any oil and natural gas assets.

[40] In 2020 developer Ørsted sold a 50% stake in the Greater Changhua 1 Offshore Wind Farm in Taiwan to Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec and Cathay PE for $2.7 billion.

[42] Ørsted considers Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands as core markets of corporation.

It also owns power production facilities and projects in Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom.

[49][50] In the United Kingdom Ørsted operates Barrow and Burbo Bank offshore windfarms and will construct Walney and Gunfleet Sands I and II wind farms.