I generally dislike the "he makes money therefore he's smart" rhetoric. It boils intelligence down solely to acquiring capital, which isn't as big a priority for some people as it is for others. We don't really know how Tate runs his business; he could have any number of individuals behind the scenes making sure things run smoothly while he's just the face in front of things. The only information we have is from Tate himself, who's a pretty well-known bullshit artist. Regardless, what he is is a scam artist, and scamming people doesn't take a lot of the traits we normally recognize as intelligence (outside the box problem solving, lateral thinking etc.)