{
  "id": 51171,
  "title": "Malaysia is reportedly shutting down Balaji Srinivasan’s Network School",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/02/malaysia-is-reportedly-shutting-down-balaji-srinivasans-network-school",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-08-02T17:05:07.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "TechCrunch",
    "slug": "techcrunch",
    "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/02/malaysia-is-reportedly-shutting-down-balaji-srinivasans-network-school/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The Malaysian government has decided to shut down a startup-focused community called the Network School, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Network School was founded by entrepreneur and investor Balaji Srinivasan, who holds the belief that the United States is in irreversible decline. Srinivasan aims to create a new country through a seven-stage plan detailed in his book \"The Network State.\"\n\nThe Network School, located in an abandoned Malaysian hotel, serves as a tech incubator and self-improvement retreat. Attendees have expressed their disappointment over moldy rooms and a lack of women and nightlife. In response to queries from the WSJ, Srinivasan, who reportedly renounced his American citizenship in 2023, published a lengthy post on X. In the post, he declared himself \"a proud Singaporean\" and complained that the WSJ was working on a \"hit piece\" that would portray him as an \"odd duck\" rather than an early adopter. While the current Malaysian campus will reportedly be closed due to licensing issues, Srinivasan has announced a new agreement for a campus in Kazakhstan.",
  "summary": "Let's see how this \"frontier community for techno-optimists\" is doing ...",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}