Investing

Bid for Buffett Lunch Hits $4,567,888

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: June 1, 2019 10:45 am

Last Updated: January 6, 2020 4:10 am

An annual bidding ritual to have lunch with Warren Buffett, the proceeds of which go to charity, has hit $4,567,888, according to the bidding page on eBay.

The amount was the final bid.

The money will go to SF based charity GLIDE which provides social services in San Franciso. It describes itself as

GLIDE is a social justice movement, social service provider and spiritual community dedicated to strengthening communities and transforming lives. Located in San Francisco’s culturally vibrant but poverty-stricken Tenderloin neighborhood, GLIDE addresses the needs of, and advocates for, the most vulnerable and marginalized individuals and families among us.

This is the 20th year of the auction.

The winning bidder has not been named.

Buffett is America’s most famous investor, and one of the richest people in the world. He controls conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, which owns a number of companies outright and has investments in some of America’s largest companies, ranging from Wells Fargo to Amazon, to Apple, to Coca Cola.

He recently described the primary motivations behind how he runs Berkshire:

Our long-term economic goal (subject to some qualifications mentioned later) is to maximize Berkshire’s average annual rate of gain in intrinsic business value on a per-share basis. We do not measure the economic significance or performance of Berkshire by its size; we measure by per-share progress. We are certain that the rate of per-share progress will diminish  in the future – a greatly enlarged capital base will see to that. But we will be disappointed if our rate does not exceed that of the average large American corporation

He has already promised to give most of his huge fortune to charity.