AT 78 LARRY ELLISON, the co-founder and chairman of Oracle, a business-software firm, is still brimming with energy. During the company’s latest quarterly earnings call on June 12th the septuagenarian rhapsodised youthfully about artificial intelligence (AI) and the latest cloud-computing technology. He has good reason to be in high spirits. Over the past year Mr Ellison’s wealth has rocketed to nearly $150bn, according to Forbes, a magazine that tracks such things, on the back of Oracle’s soaring share price. On June 13th Mr Ellison briefly passed Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon, as the world’s third-richest man. Like Mr Ellison, Oracle...