Lunch with billionaire businessman, Warren Buffet became the most expensive item at auction this year for GLIDE, a charity based in San Francisco, United States of America.
This is not the first time he has offered his time for an auction. Yet it was the 21st and the last lunch he would have with the highest bidder. It’s the highest price ever paid for a lunch with the billionaire since he started donating his time to auction for the charity.
The auction began in 2000 and the billionaire has participated in all of them, volunteering his time at the auction and meeting the winners as agreed. So far, the billionaire has raised $53.2 million for the auction.
What you should know
- The auction did not take place in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and this is the first time in two years that this would happen. The $19 million prize is a huge difference from the last amount paid for time with the billionaire in 2019 with $4.57 million paid by cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun.
- Money raised from the auction would be used to provide meals, shelter, HIV and Hepatitis C testing, job training and children’s programs.
- Mr Buffet, now 91, developed a great deal of interest and passion for charity after it was introduced to him by his first wife Susan, who died in 2004.
- The billionaire who is currently the 7th richest man in the world has also pledged to donate almost all of his fortune of $93.4 billion, which is his current net worth, according to Forbes magazine.
- The winner of this year’s auction and up to seven guests will dine with Buffett at the Smith & Wollensky steakhouse in Manhattan, where the billionaire will talk about just about anything but where he might invest next.
- Previous auction winners are hedge fund managers David Einhorn and Ted Westchler. Mr Westchler became a Berkshire portfolio manager after paying $5.25 million to win the 2010 and 2011 auctions to dine with the billionaire.