Fun fact: American English never adopted the French / British “milliard.” Western colonization began around the same time that comma separation changed the group above millions. The original bi-millions (as in one million million) became one thousand million. See long and short scales. This American use was later standardized back into British English.

That linguistic artifact, and the implausible difference between twelve megadollars and twelve gigadollars, are the main reasons many Anglophone monoglots just skimmed this headline and shit their pants.