It is a seemingly incorrect claim. Google has semi-recently, publicly said they still use PageRank as one of their signals.
https://searchengineland.com/google-has-confirmed-they-are-r...
https://searchengineland.com/google-has-confirmed-they-are-r...
This is the weird thing -- it feels smaller. Back in the early 2000s it really felt like I was navigating an ocean of knowledge. But these days it just feels like a couple of lakes.
(also, I'm pretty sure it was billions already quite early on?)