It's just that $15 billion may seem like a lot of money today to most people and even to most corporations, but for Apple and Google, it's a footnote.
And yet, at one time in Steve Jobs' second tenure at Apple, just 1% of that quantum was the difference between Apple's survival and Apple's demise.
Here's a better telling of the story that provides context
https://www.wired.com/2009/08/dayintech-0806/
and Walter Isaacson quoting how Jobs told it
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2012/03/01/steve-jo...
