Warren Buffett’s Last Charity Lunch Auction Draws Record $19 Million Bid

An anonymous bidder has bid a record $19 million to have the opportunity to eat lunch with

Warren Buffett.

The individual, who made the winning bid in a charitable auction on eBay, will meet the

chief executive at New York City steakhouse Smith & Wollensky sometime in the coming months.

This year marks the final time Mr. Buffett, 91 years old, will participate in the lunch. Since kicking off the annual event in 2000, Mr. Buffett has helped raise more than $53 million for Glide, a San Francisco charity that provides meals, healthcare and legal aid to homeless and other vulnerable individuals in the city. Glide was a favorite cause of Mr. Buffett’s first wife, Susie Buffett, who died in 2004.

“It’s been nothing but good,” Mr. Buffett said of the lunch in a press release. “I’ve met a lot of interesting people from all over the world. The one universal characteristic is that they feel the money is going to be put to very good uses.”

This year’s winning bid more than quadruples the last winning bid, which was made by a cryptocurrency entrepreneur in the 2019 auction.

Previous winners have included former hedge-fund manager

Ted Weschler,

who is now one of Berkshire’s portfolio managers; Greenlight Capital President

David Einhorn

; and a Chinese gaming company, which placed a winning bid of $2,345,678.