Warren Buffett Charity Lunch Fetches Record Bid Of $19-M

A wealthy individual has bid $19 million to have lunch with Warren Buffett. This is the 21st and final time the billionaire businessman has auctioned off a private lunch for a San Francisco charity, Jonathan Stempel reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: A caricature of Warren Buffett

The winning bid at the eBay auction, which ended on Friday (Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Manila), far exceeded the previous record of $4.57 million paid by cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun in 2019.

Buffett has promised to donate nearly all of his fortune to charity. According to Forbes magazine, Buffett was worth $93.4 billion on Friday, ranking seventh in the world.

Glide Foundation, a nonprofit in San Francisco's Tenderloin district assists the poor, homeless, and those struggling with substance abuse, will benefit from the proceeds. Glide provides meals, shelter, HIV and hepatitis C testing, job training, and children's programs.

It was previously affiliated with the United Methodist Church's (UMC) California-Nevada Annual Conference (CNAC), to which Lizzie Glide entrusted a fund to promote Methodism. The foundation was established in 1963 during the administrations of Rev. Cecil Williams and Janice Mirikitani to help the poor in San Francisco.

The winner of this year's auction chose to remain anonymous.

According to an eBay spokesperson, the lunch was the most expensive item ever sold on the company's website to benefit charity. Buffett, 91, the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., raised approximately $53.2 million for Glide in the 21 auctions, which began in 2000.

"It's been nothing but good," Buffett said in a statement. "I've met a lot of interesting people from all over the world. The one universal characteristic is that they feel the money is going to be put to very good uses." Buffett began supporting Glide after his first wife, Susan, introduced him to the charity, where she had been volunteering. Susan Buffett passed away in 2004.

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