Money and power are the same thing.

only in a corrupt system.

In every system. The whole point of money is you can use it to get what you want. The whole point of having power is that you can use it to get what you want. They are the same thing if not completely interchangeable. You can use money to buy power and you can use power to accumulate money.

You can use money to buy things people are willing to sell.

You can use power to get people to do they would not otherwise do.

Generally, if money is able to get people to do things they wouldn't otherwise do, there needs to be some sort of duress, or corruption. People who are content with what they have don't resort to prostitution or otherwise compromising their principles for money. Those who are held under crippling debt, or who come to have no principles, are much more inclined to do so.

Power is more subtle, and it is related to money, but no, they're not the same thing.

If you only care about money then there’s no difference between a few hundred million and anything above that. What can you not do with money with a few hundred million? Not much.

The people who get to be billionaires are motivated differently to normal people. They are more like feudal kings.