KUALA LUMPUR – A Malaysian crypto investor is weighing a plan to revive the tech campus left vacant by the abrupt collapse of Balaji Srinivasan’s Network School, potentially giving a second life to an experiment that drew hundreds of entrepreneurs to the country.
Jeff Yew, a Malaysian motorsport enthusiast who previously headed Binance Australia, is considering establishing his own technology campus at Forest City, the US$100 billion (S$128 billion) development in southern Malaysia. His vision would take a different tack from Srinivasan’s, with a “Malaysia first” approach.
Yew may offer a lifeline not just to the empty campus, but to Forest City – a man-made island that’s struggled to live up to its billing as a futuristic new metropolis – and to Malaysia’s broader ambitions to build a technology economy beyond data centres.
For almost two years, school leavers, graduates, professionals and young families enrolled in Srinivasan’s Network School, which offered a curriculum blending practical skills with an ideological vision of how technology and society might evolve. Srinivasan, a prominent crypto investor and former Coinbase chief technology officer, chose Forest City as his testing ground, though he frequently referred to the location simply as being “near Singapore.”
Malaysian authorities ordered the school to close in July after a public falling-out between the two sides, forcing the students to leave the country.
Yew now heads Monochrome Asset Management, an Australian-listed Bitcoin exchange-traded fund that has about A$128 million (S$116 million) in assets. His matte-blue Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato carries a “Bitcoin” number plate.
His proposed campus would put a distinctly Malaysian stamp on the idea. It could potentially turn a site associated with one crypto experiment into a base for a new generation of technology entrepreneurs but the plans are far from settled.
Days after the eviction, Yew offered to take over the project in a social-media post, and told Bloomberg News that he’s entered preliminary discussions with Srinivasan and his team.
“It’s about a balance of attracting talent overseas and also nurturing local entrepreneurs,” Yew said in an interview, while floating the possibility of local scholarship programmes. The goal is to make the state of Johor “a digital hub” for global artificial intelligence, blockchain and computer science.
For the plan to work, Yew said it would need to be built around Malaysia’s interests, including a commitment to respecting local authorities.
Network School at first aligned neatly with Malaysia’s ambitions to attract tech talent from afar, complementing a boom in data centre and AI investments. Students came to “lock in” on building their start-ups with like-minded people, shared workouts and protein shakes, as well as Srinivasan’s belief in a new kind of society.
But the school came under scrutiny after allegations that Israeli students were living and studying on its campus, in breach of Malaysian immigration rules. It blew-up into a local backlash that prompted authorities to raid the campus and check the passports of all students. Although immigration officials found everyone at the school had “valid travel documents,” the damage had been done.
A widened probe uncovered two violations of local licensing laws and led to an eviction notice.
For Forest City, beleaguered by sluggish sales and the financial distress of its Chinese developer Country Garden, the school was a rare bright spot.
In a bid to help revive it, the Malaysian government designated the city a special financial zone with a specific focus on attracting family offices. It’s secured assets under management of about RM670 million (S$209 million) from various family offices, although the number is far below its overall target of RM2 billion by the end of 2026.
In July, shortly after the school shuttered, police arrested 335 people who were allegedly operating online scam syndicates out of Forest City, further dimming the prospects of a meaningful revival.
Malaysia’s case for investors is unlikely, however, to be dimmed by the experimental Network School exit.
Malaysia has long held ambitions to move up the technology value chain and is stepping up efforts to build a higher-value technology economy, with the government targeting an inclusive and sustainable “AI nation” by 2030. The country is seeking to move beyond its traditional strengths in semiconductor assembly, testing and packaging by developing front-end chip-design capabilities while expanding digital and data infrastructure, building skilled talent and attracting investment in areas like AI and advanced semiconductor manufacturing. It’s also seeking to draw more tech talent to the country via a special economic zone being developed with Singapore in Johor.
Adib Zalkapli, founder of Viewfinder Global Affairs, a geopolitical risk consultancy in Kuala Lumpur, agrees the country’s tech future can still be bright. “The case will be remembered, if at all, as a footnote in Malaysia’s tech investment history,” he said. “It will not affect how other technology companies view Malaysia.” BLOOMBERG
