Early bids for final charity lunch with Buffett top $3M

By JOSH FUNK
AP Business Writer

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Bidding for a final, private lunch with Warren Buffett, an event that has raised tens of millions for a California charity, has already topped $3 million.

It will be the first private lunch offered with the billionaire since a record-setting bid in 2019. The past two auctions were called off due to the pandemic and Buffett has said this will be the last.

The online auction that raises money to support the Glide Foundation’s work to help the homeless in San Francisco began Sunday and continues through Friday night.

So far only four bidders have participated and driven the price up to $3,000,100, but the biggest bids don’t usually come until closer to the end of the eBay auction. Bidding during the last event reached an unprecedented $4,567,888.

Buffett has raised has raised nearly $34.5 million for Glide since the auction began in 2000. Many of the past winners paid high prices for the chance to pick Buffett’s brain about investing and talk about life lessons with the 91-year-old.

Glide earned Buffett’s support when his first wife, Susie, introduced him to the charity after she started volunteering there. He has said Glide impressed him with the way it helps people in difficult situations find hope again in life. Glide provides meals, health care, job training, rehabilitation and housing support to the poor and homeless.

Buffett’s Omaha, Nebraska, conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway, owns an eclectic assortment of more than 90 companies including BNSF railroad, Geico insurance, several major utilities and a number of manufacturing and retail businesses. Berkshire also holds major stock investments in Apple, Bank of America, Chevron, Coca-Cola and other companies.