> Greedy, ruthless and well-connected?

Sure, but that's not enough.

> These people are hardly genuises.

You're quite wrong about this. I know it's tempting to look at a damaged person and assume that they possess no actual extraordinary capabilities, but these people are very very smart. Surely they'd be top-tier HN. :)

(Defining "genius" is a whole nother thing, but using any common vernacular meaning, my statement will apply.)

Not all billionaires, of course. In context, we're talking about Ellison and Musk. There may be others implied. These people are in fact extremely intelligent. What's missing is not horsepower.