I think what was meant was that a winning solution to Amazon's problem is probably worth a lot more to them than $25000 to them. Eg. cents saved picking item would rack up to millions saved annually. Amazon bought Kiva for $775 million.[1] a top rank robotic picking and packing solution would be worth as much too.

[1] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-03-19/amazon-acq...

If you're capable of creating something that can win first place, and you do the work, then the result is worth far more than $25,000; so if you want $25,000 and are willing to do this work, then appropriate reaction would be to do that outside of the competition and sell it for much, much more than that.