The founding group secured a 160+ acre parcel of land in Mountain View County, Alberta, where they established Aurora's first facility.

[9] They decided to establish the company in Alberta due to comparatively low corporate tax rates and an ideal farm credit program.

[12] Due to its significant capital investments, particularly in large growing facilities, Aurora had about 20% of the Canadian retail market for cannabis during early 2019.

[3] An October 2019 report stated that cannabis stocks had "crumbled to their lowest level since 2017"; Aurora shares were also at a two-year low.

By 2018, Aurora's subsidiaries included Pedanios GmbH (Germany's largest distributor of cannabis to pharmacies),[22] CanvasRx (the largest medical cannabis patient outreach service in Canada),[23] BC Northern Lights (an indoor growing supplies manufacturer),[24] Aurora-Larssen Projects (a globally leading greenhouse engineering and design consultancy),[25] and H2 Biopharma (a late-stage ACMPR applicant in Quebec)[26] By April 2018, the company had a market value of Can$4.5 billion; revenue in 2017 totaled Can$31.1 million.

The subsequent plan to purchase MedReleaf was expected to make the company the largest in Canada with a market capitalization of approximately $7 billion.

[28][29] Competitor Canopy Growth Corporation's market value exceeded that amount by $3.7 billion, however after a partial takeover by Constellation Brands was announced in late August 2018.

A report in mid-September 2018 by BNN Bloomberg, stated that Coca-Cola was considering the development of cannabis-infused beverages for medical purposes (with a non-psychoactive ingredient, CBD) and was in preliminary discussion with Aurora.

[32] On 20 September 2018, Tilray had become the world's most valuable cannabis company, but a major drop in share price (and a subsequent market capitalization of about US$10 billion) made it only the third largest, after Canopy Growth and Aurora.

[33] In September 2020, Aurora Cannabis reportedly lost more than Can$3.3 billion in its recently concluded fiscal year which caused shares to drop roughly 10% in after-hours trading.

[35] During the fourth quarter of 2019, several law firms in the United States announced class action lawsuits against Aurora, citing the abrupt decline in stock price, failure to complete planned capital investments, and missed revenue and profit forecasts by the company as misleading to public investors.

[16][36] During an interview in November 2019, CEO Terry Booth discussed the poor retail performance of the Canadian cannabis industry, saying that "carnage" was possible unless certain producers were able to reduce the cost of operations when oversupply existed.

[39][43] Aurora owns Pedanios GmbH, a wholesale importer, exporter, and distributor of medical cannabis in the European Union, based in Berlin, Germany.

[45] A statement from the company in early October 2019 reported a funding capacity for over 625,000 kilograms (1,378,000 lb) of cannabis per year, with sales and operations in 25 countries.

[47] CanniMed management responded by rejecting the offer, and proposed an alternative merger with Newstrike Resources, a recreational cannabis firm, instead.

The Ontario Securities Commission intervened in this, the first major hostile takeover bid in Canada's cannabis industry, ordering Aurora Cannabis Inc. to provide more disclosure regarding any ties to individuals "in a special relationship" with target CanniMed Therapeutics Inc. and blocking CanniMed from adopting the so-called "poison pill" defence.

[49] On January 18, CanniMed postponed its shareholder vote on the Newstrike deal, submitting that it will hold talks with suitor Aurora Cannabis.

In March 2017, Aurora's online store and mobile app began providing public access to a simplified version of every Certificate of Analysis (CoA) for every cannabis product available.