Winner pays $9M in charity auction for a private lunch with Warren Buffett and Stephen Curry
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Josh Funk, Associated Press
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Someone paid more than $9 million to have lunch with basketball player Stephen Curry and Warren Buffett, and the legendary investor also promised to match the winning bid so both their favorite charities will benefit.
The auction on eBay was intended to revive an event that Buffett hosted for more than two decades that raised $53 million for the GLIDE Foundation homeless charity in San Francisco. This year’s auction, which wrapped up Thursday night, also raised money for Curry’s Eat.Learn.Play. Foundation that he established with his wife, Ayesha.
The anonymous winner paid $9,000,100 to win a private lunch with Buffett and the Currys in the 95-year-old investor’s hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, next month.
“We’re overwhelmed with gratitude for this opportunity, which reflects a shared belief that when different generations and institutions come together with purpose, we can create deeper and more lasting impact for the people who need it most,” the Currys said in a statement.
The Buffett auctions started in 2000 and continued every year until the pandemic prompted a couple years off. Starting in 2008, every winning bid for lunch with the investing giant topped $1 million. He discontinued the event after someone paid $19 million for a lunch in 2022.
A follow-up auction in 2024 raised $1.5 million for a lunch with software titan Marc Benioff, but that version of the event didn’t last.
Buffett reached out to the Currys earlier this year to ask them to join the lunch auction this year. Curry missed 27 games this year before returning to help the Golden State Warriors down the stretch.
Buffett stepped down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway in January after six decades of leading the conglomerate. He remains chairman, but just sat through his first annual shareholder meeting — sitting in the audience instead of leading the event from stage.