Tab for Buffett's Last Charity Lunch: $19M

The cost of lunch with Warren Buffett has gone way up. An unidentified bidder won a sit-down with the Berkshire Hathaway chairman at a New York City steakhouse on eBay, for a record $19 million. The money goes to a charity, Glide, that provides meals, health care and legal aid to homeless and other people in San Francisco. This year's winning bid is more than four times the record set by the most recent one, in 2019, of $4.5 million, the Wall Street Journal reports. The pandemic canceled the auction the past two years.

This year's charity lunch, planned for Smith & Wollensky, will be the final one for Buffett. The first was in 2000. "It's been nothing but good," the 91-year-old billionaire said 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." Buffett learned about the charity from his first wife, Susie, who volunteered there, per the AP. His 20 lunches have raised $53 million for Glide. Susie Buffett died in 2004. (More Warren Buffett stories.)