From 2000 it became a ritual. Now it’s supposed to be the last time: the auction to buy a lunch together with investor legend Warren Buffett. Minimum bid will be $25,000.
The winning bidder and up to seven of their guests will be invited to dinner at Smith & Wollensky in New York City, one of Buffett’s favorite restaurants. The auction will take place June 12-17 on eBay for Charity. As every year, the money will go to a charitable cause.
Proceeds go to the San Francisco-based Glide Foundation, which works to end poverty, housing shortages and homelessness. The auctions have already flushed millions into the coffers of the NGO. “Warren Buffett’s friendship and generosity over the past 22 years have been invaluable,” said Karen Hanrahan, President and CEO of the Glide Foundation. “His legacy will have an enduring effect on Glide and our clients.”
According to Forbes, Warren Buffett has sold 20 lunches at these annual auctions since 2000, raising more than $34 million for the Glide Foundation. According to the Glide Foundation, the highest bid since 2008 has exceeded one million US dollars after the winner of the first auction was sold for a mere US$ 25,000.
Past winners include hedge fund manager Ted Wechsler, who spent about $2.6 million each on two lunches in 2010 and 2011 before joining Buffett’s company Berkshire Hathaway in 2012. The record was broken in 2019 by Justin Yuchen, founder of blockchain platform TRON and CEO of peer-to-peer streaming service BitTorrent, when he paid $4.6 million for the coveted lunch with the Oracle of Omaha.
