Flora Growth’s dramatic $401 million transformation from cannabis operations to decentralized AI blockchain technology represents one of the most audacious corporate pivots in recent memory. The company, now rebranded as ZeroStack, has secured substantial funding through a unique structure combining $35 million in cash with $366 million in 0G tokens. This bold move positions the firm at the intersection of artificial intelligence and blockchain technology, but the success of such a radical industry shift remains uncertain.
Flora Growth has executed a dramatic strategic pivot, abandoning its cannabis operations to rebrand as ZeroStack and plunge into the decentralized AI blockchain sector with a massive $401 million treasury initiative. The company secured this funding through a PIPE round consisting of $35 million in cash and $366 million worth of in-kind 0G tokens, effectively transforming itself into a vertically integrated Web3 AI firm.
The transformation centers around the 0G ecosystem, which has demonstrated remarkable technological capabilities that validate the company’s bold strategic shift. The 0G platform successfully trained a 107-billion-parameter AI model using distributed clusters connected through low-bandwidth connections, achieving a 357x efficiency improvement over previous Google research. This breakthrough demonstrates that decentralized infrastructure can compete with traditional centralized data centers while offering greater accessibility to global participants.
The platform’s efficiency breakthrough proves decentralized AI infrastructure can outperform traditional centralized data centers while democratizing global access.
The PIPE round attracted significant institutional backing, led by Solana treasury company DeFi Dev Corp., alongside investors including Hexstone Capital, Carlsberg SE Asia, and Dao5. This institutional participation signals growing confidence in decentralized AI’s scalability potential. The $0G token carries an implied fully diluted valuation of $3 billion, with ZeroStack’s treasury strategy including holdings in Solana and Ethereum digital assets to hedge against crypto volatility. The company’s strategic transition comes at a time when the cannabis tech sector is itself experiencing remarkable growth projections of 25.6% annually.
ZeroStack’s positioning as a full-stack provider differentiates it from competitors in the rapidly expanding decentralized AI market. The 0G ecosystem integrates compute, storage, and training marketplaces under one platform, utilizing DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks) to enable user-supplied computing resources. This approach broadens network power while incorporating autonomous agents and secure on-chain governance features that distinguish AI blockchains from traditional infrastructure.
The strategic rationale reflects broader market dynamics as blockchain-AI convergence reshapes infrastructure beyond financial applications. Decentralized infrastructure offers transparency, legal protections, and democratized AI development access, addressing key challenges in the sector. Over 80 U.S. companies are competing to define this emerging ecosystem, with established players like SingularityNET and Fetch.ai demonstrating viable tokenized frameworks that reward contributors. The U.S. leads globally in decentralized AI innovation, positioning the country at the forefront of redefining traditional AI SaaS models.
The 0G ecosystem’s integrated tokenomics include a planned $0G token airdrop designed to incentivize early network participation and ecosystem growth. This model enables secure data sharing, fractional asset tokenization, and multi-party computation capabilities while maintaining on-chain transparency and user control over infrastructure ownership and governance. The deal requires shareholder approval before the expected closing date of September 26.
Early results validate the technical and operational viability of ZeroStack’s approach. The 107-billion-parameter model achievement surpassed previous public benchmarks for distributed AI workloads, proving that decentralized infrastructure can deliver competitive performance. The company’s treasury and airdrop strategy creates incentives for sustained network growth while positioning early-stage investors to benefit from Web3 infrastructure expansion.
This radical transformation from cannabis operations to decentralized AI blockchain represents one of the most significant strategic pivots in recent corporate history, with ZeroStack betting that decentralized AI infrastructure will prove more scalable and accessible than centralized alternatives.
