A MALAYSIAN crypto investor is considering reviving the technology campus abandoned after the abrupt collapse of Balaji Srinivasan’s Network School, potentially giving Forest City a second chance to position itself as a regional technology hub.
Jeff Yew, a Malaysian motorsport enthusiast and former head of Binance Australia, is weighing plans to establish his own technology campus at Forest City, the US$100 billion development in southern Malaysia.
Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that Yew’s proposal would take a different approach from Srinivasan’s experiment, placing a “Malaysia first” emphasis on developing local talent while attracting entrepreneurs and technology specialists from overseas.
The initiative could breathe new life into the vacant campus while supporting Forest City’s broader efforts to overcome sluggish sales and establish itself as more than a futuristic property development.
Yew, who now heads Monochrome Asset Management, an Australian-listed Bitcoin exchange-traded fund with about AUS$128 million in assets, said he had entered preliminary discussions with Srinivasan and his team after the Network School was ordered to close in July.
“It’s about a balance of attracting talent overseas and also nurturing local entrepreneurs,” Yew said in an interview, while raising the possibility of introducing local scholarship programmes.
He said the broader ambition would be to turn Johor into “a digital hub” for global artificial intelligence, blockchain and computer science.
Yew stressed that any new venture would have to be built around Malaysia’s interests, including a commitment to respecting local authorities.
For almost two years, Network School attracted school leavers, graduates, professionals and young families to Forest City, where participants combined start-up building with practical skills, communal activities and Srinivasan’s ideological vision of how technology and society could evolve.
Srinivasan, a prominent crypto investor and former Coinbase chief technology officer, selected Forest City as the site for his experiment, although he often described it simply as being “near Singapore”.
The Malaysian authorities ordered the school to shut in July following a public dispute between the two sides, forcing students to leave the country.
The school had initially fitted Malaysia’s ambitions to attract international technology talent, coming amid a surge in data centre and artificial intelligence investment.
However, the project came under scrutiny following allegations that Israeli students were living and studying on the campus in breach of Malaysian immigration rules.
The controversy prompted authorities to raid the campus and inspect the passports of students. Although immigration officials found that everyone at the school had “valid travel documents”, a subsequent investigation uncovered two breaches of local licensing laws, ultimately resulting in an eviction notice.
For Forest City, the closure represented the loss of one of its few high-profile technology ventures.
The development has struggled with sluggish property sales and the financial difficulties of its Chinese developer, Country Garden. In an effort to revitalise the project, the Malaysian government designated Forest City a special financial zone focused in part on attracting family offices.
The zone has secured assets under management of about RM670 million, although that remains well below its target of RM2 billion by the end of 2026.
According to Bloomberg, Forest City also suffered another setback in July when police arrested 335 people allegedly operating online scam syndicates from the development.
Despite those challenges, Malaysia continues to pursue a broader strategy of moving up the technology value chain and building a higher-value digital economy.
The government is targeting an inclusive and sustainable “AI nation” by 2030, while seeking to expand beyond its traditional strengths in semiconductor assembly, testing and packaging into areas including front-end chip design, artificial intelligence and advanced semiconductor manufacturing.
Malaysia is also investing in digital and data infrastructure, expanding its skilled workforce and seeking to attract technology investment through a special economic zone being developed with Singapore in Johor.
Adib Zalkapli, founder of Kuala Lumpur-based geopolitical risk consultancy Viewfinder Global Affairs, said the collapse of Network School was unlikely to undermine Malaysia’s longer-term technology ambitions.
“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.” - August 12, 2026
