Malaysia Shuts Down Balaji Srinivasan’s Network School Amid Licensing Issues

Malaysia has closed operations of Balaji Srinivasan’s Network School, a startup-focused residential community that was designed as a foundation for his broader idea of building a new technology-driven society.

The project, which began in Malaysia’s Forest City township, ended operations after local authorities raised licensing concerns.

Srinivasan, an Indian-origin entrepreneur, scientist and investor, is known for his book The Network State: How to Start a New Country. He previously co-founded genomics company Counsyl and served as chief technology officer at cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. He later founded Network School as an experiment combining entrepreneurship, technology and community living.

The Network School was designed as a hybrid of a startup accelerator, residential campus and innovation hub. It aimed to bring together entrepreneurs, engineers, investors and technology professionals who would live, collaborate and build startups together.

The campus offered co-working facilities, workshops, founder sessions and lifestyle programmes focused on health and productivity.

The first campus was established in Forest City, a Chinese-developed township in Johor, Malaysia, located near Singapore. The $100 billion development has often been described as a “ghost city” due to its low population despite large-scale infrastructure.

However, the project faced several challenges. According to reports, participants raised concerns about issues such as mold in rooms, limited nightlife and an imbalance in gender representation. Critics claimed the community lacked adequate social diversity, while Srinivasan rejected the allegations and described the reports as unfair criticism.

Responding to the concerns, Srinivasan said maintenance issues were addressed regularly and argued that Network School was focused on self-improvement rather than entertainment.

He said the community had hosted hundreds of women, families and children, rejecting claims that women were absent from the campus.

He also dismissed criticism over the lack of nightlife, saying the initiative was created for people focused on learning, building companies and improving themselves rather than partying. He compared the culture to an engineering-focused university environment rather than a leisure destination.

Following the shutdown in Malaysia, Srinivasan announced that he had signed an agreement to establish a new Network School campus in Kazakhstan. The project is now expected to continue its experiment in a new location while pursuing its larger vision of technology-based communities.