An anonymous buyer paid $9,000,100 to win a private lunch with Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry and investor Warren Buffett, and Buffett has promised to match the winning bid so both of the recipients’ favored charities will benefit, the report says.
The auction on eBay was intended to revive an event Buffett hosted for more than two decades that raised $53 million for the GLIDE Foundation homeless charity in San Francisco, the report says. This year’s auction, which wrapped up Thursday night, also raised money for Curry’s Eat.Learn.Play. Foundation that he established with his wife, Ayesha, per the report.
The anonymous winner will meet Buffett and the Currys in Buffett’s hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, next month, the report says. Buffett reached out to the Currys earlier this year to ask them to join the lunch auction, according to the report.
The report says the Buffett auctions began in 2000 and continued annually until the pandemic prompted a pause. Starting in 2008, every winning bid for the lunch topped $1 million. Buffett discontinued the event after a bid of $19 million in 2022, and a follow-up auction in 2024 raised $1.5 million for a lunch with software executive Marc Benioff but did not continue.
The Currys issued a statement saying they were “overwhelmed with gratitude” for the opportunity and that it reflected a belief that different generations and institutions working together can create lasting impact for those in need, the report says. The report also notes that Curry missed 27 games this year before returning to help the Warriors down the stretch, and that Buffett stepped down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway in January after six decades, remaining chairman and attending his first annual shareholder meeting in the audience rather than leading from the stage.
