Warren Buffett, Stephen Curry lunch auction draws US$9 million winning bid

AN ANOYMOUS bidder paid US$9 million for lunch with Warren Buffett, National Basketball Association champion Stephen Curry and actress and entrepreneur Ayesha Curry.

Buffett will match the winning bid for charities Glide and Eat. Learn. Play., the two beneficiaries of the auction, according to a statement. The anonymous winner and seven guests will dine with the legendary 95-year-old investor and the Curry couple in Omaha on June 24.

“I’m thrilled with the response to this auction and honoured to support the important work being done by Glide and the Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation,” Buffett said in the statement.

Glide dedicates its work to fighting systematic injustices, addressing pressing issues such as poverty, according to the statement. Meanwhile, Eat. Learn. Play., founded by Steph and Ayesha Curry, serves children in Oakland in a variety of capacities.

For more than two decades, Buffett routinely hosted a lunch auction that raised more than US$50 million to support Glide. He held the last auction in 2022, when an anonymous person spent a record US$19 million to secure the lunch. This year’s winner exceeded the previous record of US$4.6 million that cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun paid in 2019.

Previous winners include hedge fund manager David Einhorn and Ted Weschler, who became a stock picker for Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway after meeting the billionaire for lunch. BLOOMBERG