Kazakhstan just became the new home of Balaji Srinivasan's Network School, hours after Malaysian authorities formally pulled the plug on the project's Forest City campus. The speed of the pivot was striking: the Johor Chief Minister announced the license revocation in the morning, and by the afternoon Srinivasan had posted a pinned announcement on X about a signed memorandum of understanding with the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Under the MOU, Network School will open a new campus in Kazakhstan with what Srinivasan described as "expedited visas, streamlined redomiciliation, and active recruitment of talent." Kazakhstan's Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development framed the deal as a strategic partnership covering artificial intelligence, innovation, technological entrepreneurship and human capital development, and noted that Srinivasan's technology ecosystem spans over 500 companies.
How the Malaysia Eviction Unfolded
The Iskandar Puteri City Council voted to revoke Network School's business license on July 22, ordering all activities to cease immediately. Johor Chief Minister Onn Hafiz Ghazi stated plainly that "no investor, company, or organisation may be placed above the sovereignty of the country's laws." Malaysia's digital economy agency MDEC is also moving separately to strip the school of its Malaysia Digital status, piling on a second layer of regulatory pressure.
The shutdown followed weeks of mounting scrutiny. Social-media posts alleged that Israeli nationals were living inside the community, which triggered an immigration inspection. Authorities later reported that members held valid immigration documents, but the political damage was done. Srinivasan had called reports of an impending closure "fake news," insisting Network School had received only two minor licensing notices.
Srinivasan launched Network School in 2024 as a live-in commune built around techno-optimist principles, conceived as a real-world experiment in the "network state" idea he outlined in his 2022 book of the same name. The former Coinbase CTO has spent years arguing that digitally-native communities can eventually gain the kind of sovereignty traditionally held by nation-states. Kazakhstan, which has been aggressively courting tech investment, is now the first country to formally bet on that premise with a signed agreement.
