$100 Billion Real Estate Failure on Artificial Island in Malaysia Turns Into Global Campus and Startup Laboratory

Written by Romário Pereira de Carvalho

Published on 03/09/2025 at 10:28

Imagem: sukri-samsudin / OpenStreetCam, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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An abandoned hotel on an artificial island in Malaysia has been transformed into a campus for technology and cryptocurrency entrepreneurs. They participate in the Network School, created by Balaji Srinivasan, former Coinbase executive, according to Bloomberg reports.

The experience takes place in Forest City, a mega real estate project launched in 2016 by a Chinese developer in partnership with a Malaysian state fund.

Planned as a futuristic and sustainable city, the initiative ultimately failed after the pandemic, rising prices, and financial issues. Today, occupancy is minimal.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

The Concept of New Nations

The most important thing for the visionary is that each person can choose their country just as they choose a college. He stated in a talk at Bitcoin Asia in Hong Kong that this has already begun to happen.

Utopian ideas linked to Silicon Valley and the crypto community have been circulating for over a decade. Despite little practical support so far, Srinivasan believes the world is ready to question the nation-state model. Forest City would be the first test on a global scale.

Why Forest City?

Although he did not clearly explain the choice, Bloomberg points out strategic advantages. These include low rents, proximity to Singapore, and incentives from the Malaysian government.

There is also the creation of a free trade zone and tax exemptions for investment vehicles of ultra-wealthy individuals.

Thus, the former urban promise has become the perfect environment to attract entrepreneurs seeking space and new forms of organization.

Structure of the School

So far, about 400 students have passed through the campus. The initial cost is US$ 1,500 per month, including accommodation and meals in shared rooms.

Mornings are dedicated to programming and product development. Afternoons are for seminars on various topics, such as Singapore governance, decentralized management, and even the Meiji Restoration. The lectures mix technical learning and ideological content.

Additionally, there is a strong emphasis on longevity and health. Students follow a high-protein diet, inspired by the Don’t Die movement of guru Bryan Johnson. At the restaurant in Marina Hotel, protein shakes and steaks dominate the menu.

The Mentor Behind the Idea

Balaji Srinivasan has a career marked by Silicon Valley. He co-founded Counsyl in 2008, was a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, and became CTO of Coinbase in 2018.

In 2013, he was already advocating for the “final exit” from Silicon Valley, which he considered obsolete. In 2022, he published the book The Network State, proposing ideologically aligned communities that could, through blockchain, form decentralized states and seek diplomatic recognition.

Although he criticizes policies of Donald Trump, his harshest critiques fall on the “Blue Tribe”—liberals and Democrats. He believes that the “Gray Tribe,” made up of innovators, can reclaim cities like San Francisco through territorial occupation.

Selection and Expansion

In the school’s selection process, there is a peculiar criterion: the more respect a candidate has for traditional institutions, the less chance they have of being accepted. For Srinivasan, innovation requires disruption, not conformity.

He also states that this is just the beginning. His plan is to establish a permanent campus in Forest City for thousands of entrepreneurs and then take the model to cities like Miami, Dubai, and Tokyo.

Reflections for Forest City

The city, once known as a “white elephant” in Malaysia with a US$ 100 billion price tag, now hosts a laboratory of radical ideas.

Whether it will work or not remains uncertain. But, immediately, it has already brought benefits: international attention, economic movement, and a new narrative for one of Malaysia’s largest urban ventures.

With information from Época Negócios.

$100 Billion Real Estate Failure on Artificial Island in Malaysia Turns Into Global Campus and Startup Laboratory

The Concept of New Nations

Why Forest City?

Structure of the School

The Mentor Behind the Idea

Selection and Expansion

Reflections for Forest City

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$100 Billion Real Estate Failure on Artificial Island in Malaysia Turns Into Global Campus and Startup Laboratory

In Forest City, Former Coinbase Executive Transforms Abandoned Hotel Into Startup Campus, Uniting Crypto, Technological Ideology and New Social Models

The Concept of New Nations

Why Forest City?

Structure of the School

The Mentor Behind the Idea

Selection and Expansion

Reflections for Forest City

With billions in loans, China is rebuilding Nigeria’s railway network from scratch, abandoning the British colonial tracks that have turned to scrap and creating a corridor of over 1,300 km to take the load off the roads of Africa’s largest economy.

Forget petroleum-based asphalt: a Scottish company transforms 684,000 plastic bottles into one kilometer of road that is 60% more resistant and up to 10 times more durable, and the technology has already started replacing traditional asphalt in more than 30 countries.

China is building an artificial island in the middle of the sea, covering 20 km², to construct the largest offshore airport in the world, the Dalian Jinzhouwan. This $4.3 billion project is anchored on more than 3,000 pillars embedded in the rock beneath the ocean and is scheduled to open in 2035.

Austrian engineers have developed an inflatable concrete technology that transforms flat slabs into domes using only air pressure, eliminating scaffolding and temporary forms, and potentially changing the way bridges, tunnels, and curved roofs are constructed worldwide.

A robot named Walter does the work of five bricklayers per hour and can save the construction industry, where the average age of professionals is 46 years and almost no one wants to learn the trade anymore, in the United Kingdom.

Spain installs two giant pipelines 2.2 km off the coast to draw water from the Mediterranean and supply a megafacility capable of producing 200 million liters of drinking water per day.

Without wheels, iron, or machines, teams of up to 32 men would have dragged 2.3-ton blocks over wet sand up a ramp embedded in the pyramid itself, raising the structure in 20 to 27 years, according to a new computer model that reignites a millennia-old debate.

Almost no ship sails directly between South America and Australia, and the reason is a combination of the vast distance, winds that circle the planet nonstop, and the absence of ports along the way, leaving the South Pacific as a water desert.

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The largest car carrier ship in the world will unload 7,200 BYD cars at the SC Port in June, but before that, an Italian ship will arrive this Tuesday with another 4,500 vehicles, totaling 11,700 cars, 150 workers, and a 24-hour non-stop operation at the Port of Itajaí.

African country launched a $145 million project to rehabilitate 35 dams and drill deep wells seeking water stored for millennia beneath the desert, a plan that Captain Ibrahim Traoré’s government presents as a path to the country’s water sovereignty.

A 400-meter colossus powered by natural gas has just set sail from Shanghai to Europe, carrying over 24,000 containers. It is the world’s largest dual-fuel container ship and can cross the planet without refueling even once.

The largest highway concession company in Brazil already belongs to an Italian group, and now the railway sector may be next to receive billions in investments from Italy amid the progress of the Mercosur and European Union agreement.

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