Someone Just Paid $3.4M to Have Lunch With Warren Buffett

An anonymous fan was the winning bidder in a charity auction for lunch with Warren Buffett. Their bid of $3,456,789 won their place at a table (along with seven friends) with the famed investor and also matched the record amount collected in 2012.

Including 2016’s bids, the auction has raised more than $23 million since 2000 for Glide, a San Francisco charity that works for the city’s homeless and poor residents. The funds help provide 750,000 meals in a year as well as legal counseling, afterschool care, rental assistance, and more.

Susie Buffett, Mr. Buffett’s firt wife, was a volunteer there and conceive the charity auction idea. She died in 2004. The first auction raised $25,000 but since 2008, the winning bids have been at least $1 million.

The funds support Glide’s various programs. The charity says that in a year, it provides 750,000 meals as well as rental assistance, legal counseling, afterschool care, emergency shelter and other services to thousands of people in the Bay Area.

The winning bidder of this year’s auction will get to invite up to seven friends to dine with Mr. Buffett at Smith & Wollensky, a New York steakhouse.