An anonymous bidder paid $9,000,100 to win a private lunch with Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry and investor Warren Buffett, and Buffett pledged to match the winning amount so both their preferred charities will benefit, per the report. The lunch is scheduled to take place next month in Buffett’s hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, the report says.
The auction was held on eBay as an effort to revive an event Buffett hosted for more than two decades that raised $53 million for the GLIDE Foundation homeless charity in San Francisco, per the report. The recent auction wrapped up Thursday night, the report says, and also directed proceeds to Curry’s Eat.Learn.Play. Foundation, which he established with his wife, Ayesha.
The report says the Buffett auctions began in 2000 and were held annually until a pandemic-related pause. Starting in 2008, every winning bid for lunch with Buffett topped $1 million, per the report. Buffett discontinued the original event after a $19 million winning bid in 2022, the report adds.
A follow-up auction in 2024 raised $1.5 million for a lunch with software executive Marc Benioff, but that iteration of the event did not continue, per the report. The report also says Buffett reached out to the Currys earlier this year to invite them to participate in the lunch auction.
The Currys issued a statement expressing gratitude for the opportunity and framing the auction as an effort to bring generations and institutions together to increase impact. “We’re overwhelmed with gratitude for this opportunity, which reflects a shared belief that when different generations and institutions come together with purpose, we can create deeper and more lasting impact for the people who need it most,” the Currys said in the statement, per the report. The report notes that Buffett stepped down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway in January after six decades leading the conglomerate; he remains chairman and recently attended his first annual shareholder meeting from the audience instead of from the stage.
