$2000 is a lot of money, but so are the tech budgets of most places I've worked. Money can be a funny thing in corporate environments. They'll spend freely on some things, and be stingy on others.

$2000 as a test case that you can present to the rest of the company as a "this is what I learned and how best to use it" can be "cheap" in the sense that it produced real results that allow others to take advantage of the gained knowledge, thereby allowing the company to be more productive. If the $2000 produced an ROI that pays for itself within a reasonable time frame, then it's "cheap".

$2000 can be expensive if it's a college kid trying to complete an assignment.