Warren Buffett is no stranger to astronomical sums of money but even he must have raised eyebrows at a US$2.6 million lunch.

An online charity auction, which concluded on eBay last week, saw one bidder stump up the money for lunch with Buffett and seven friends.

The diners will head to New York’s Smith & Wollensky steakhouse with all proceeds benefitting Glide, a San Francisco-based charity that serves meals to the homeless, hosts support groups through its women’s centre for abuse victims and provides drug treatment for addicts, Bloomberg reports.

“Warren Buffett and the generous bidders enable us to provide a holistic array of high quality services that meet critical needs, improve lives and elevate the human spirit,” Glide’s co-founder Janice Mirikitani said in a statement before the auction began.

The auction, now in its 18th year, helps provide 750,000 meals a year, the charity said in an Instagram post.

The first auction in 2000 raised US$25,000 with a record US$3.4 million paid both last year and in 2012.

“Everyone that has experienced Glide comes away a believer,” Buffett said in a statement last month, according to Bloomberg. “They have to see it to believe it, but when they see it, they do believe it.”

This year’s anonymous winner may hope to follow in the footsteps of Ted Weschler, who won the auction twice in 2010 and 2011 and later joined Berkshire Hathaway to oversee investments.


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