Warren Buffett is stepping out for his famed charity lunch again.
A mystery bidder paid just over $9 million to win an auction with the Oracle of Omaha, who last participated in the event in 2022.
DINE MAY MEAN MCDONALD’S ? after all this is with the world’s biggest cheapskate.
The winner will meet the Berkshire Hathaway chairman for lunch on June 24 in Omaha, Neb. They will be joined by Golden State Warriors point-guard Steph Curry and his wife, entrepreneur Ayesha Curry. The winning bidder can bring up to seven guests.
This year’s winning bid amount is a steep drop from the last time Buffett participated in the lunch in 2022, when an anonymous bidder paid a record $19 million. Buffett, 95, has helped raise more than $50 million for Glide, a treasured cause of his first wife, Susie Buffett, who died in 2004.
“At 92, I ran out of gas. The spirit remained eager but the flesh became progressively weaker,” Buffett said. “Both the money and the message remain important.”
The charity lunch has long been seen in the business world as a rare chance to spend time with the legendary investor, who retired as CEO of Berkshire in December.
ed Weschler, now a Berkshire investment manager, won the auction twice when he was a hedge-fund manager, paying more than $2 million each time. Crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun is another previous winner. Sun said he gave crypto skeptic Buffett one bitcoin, as well as several Tron, the digital token of the blockchain he founded, during their meal in 2020.
Five bidders participated in this year’s auction on eBay, which opened at $50,000. Other items that were up for bidding include a $1 dollar bill signed by Buffett that sold for $9,100 and a signed Curry jersey that sold for $1,547.99.
The auction moved online in 2003, allowing Buffett fans around the world to participate. The winning price for the lunch has held above $1 million since 2008.
Proceeds from this year’s auction will be split between the charity Glide and the Currys’ Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, which provides meals and reading resources to students in Oakland, Calif. Glide provides meals, healthcare and legal aid to homeless and other vulnerable individuals in San Francisco.