Well-off people are ready to pay millions of dollars to have a steak lunch with the 91-year-old Oracle of Omaha.
The Power of One Charity Auction Lunch with Warren Buffett first started in 2000. This unique lot has been in great demand for more than a decade now. A person who wins the bid will have a 3-hour lunch with the legendary investor at the Smith & Wollensky steak house in New York. The billionaire is ready to talk about any subject but his personal investment plans.
This time, an anonymous bidder paid a record-breaking $19 million, surpassing the previous record of $4,57 by entrepreneur Justin Sun paid in 2019.
On June 12, the sale began at $25,000 and closed at $19 million (+$1), with proceeds going to the Glide Foundation. This time, the winner, who outdid 43 well-off bidders, chose to stay anonymous.
Notably, this was the final time the billionaire businessman auctioned a private lunch. Perhaps this is the reason why the hype surrounded the auction and the winning bid was so massive.
Obviously, winners pay such generous sums not for the sake of eating a juicy steak in an elite restaurant. They seek the company of the legendary 91-year-old American financier, investor, and stock guru.
Warren Buffett, worth $93.4 billion, is on the list of the world’s top 5 wealthiest people. He has been the only person in this ranking who managed not to reduce but vastly expand his already immense fortune this year, according to Bloomberg. Despite his ripe old age, Buffett is still in good shape to do business. Millionaires and even billionaires clearly have a lot to learn from him.
The annual event has raised $53.2 million over 20 years to benefit Glide, a San-Francisco-based nonprofit organization fighting poverty, hunger, and homelessness, and where the billionaire's late wife used to work.