Warren Buffett Is Partnering With an NBA Star to Revive a Two-Decades-Long Tradition

Warren Buffett’s legendary charity lunch is making a comeback — and this year, there’s an unexpected twist, CNBC reports.

Buffett will host the lunch alongside NBA star and two-time MVP Stephen Curry and his wife, author and entrepreneur Ayesha Curry. The fundraising auction will bring the investing legend and the celebrity couple together in one place, per CNBC.

“This event is about coming together again — in a new way — with people I admire, to support work that truly matters,” Buffett said in a statement. “Partnering with Stephen and Ayesha to help launch something new in support of these communities is something I’m very happy to be part of.” 

Online bidding on eBay will start on May 7 at 7:30 p.m. PDT and close on May 14 at 7:30 p.m. PDT. The winning bidder and up to seven guests will have an exclusive lunch with Buffett and the Currys in Omaha, Nebraska, on June 24. It’s unclear which restaurant will host the lunch. 

Buffett, the 95-year-old Berkshire Hathaway chairman, hosted annual charity lunch auctions for the Glide Foundation for over two decades, raising over $50 million total to support the San Francisco charity dedicated to fighting poverty and homelessness. He retired from hosting the lunches in 2022. The final lunch he attended raised $19 million. 

The newly revived initiative will donate all proceeds to the Glide Foundation and to the charitable group founded by the Curry family, the Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, which focuses on childhood literacy and nutrition. The auction proceeds will be equally split between the two organizations. 

How the lunches started

Buffett told CNBC in an interview that he started the lunch tradition back in 2000 after his late wife, Susie, encouraged him to do something to raise awareness about the Glide Foundation. She was living in San Francisco at the time and saw the positive effect that the foundation had on the local community. The charity provides essential services, like meals, shelter and health testing. 

“She [Susie] actually selected the idea of a lunch,” Buffett shared. “The first three lunches brought $25,000 each because they were localized. And then we got the idea of going on eBay. Then we started getting business from around the world.”

The lunch “inspires people” to donate, Buffett said. He initially stopped doing the lunches because he “ran out of gas,” he joked. However, he promised the late Rev. Cecil Williams, who spearheaded the Glide Foundation, that he would do one more lunch before retiring for good. 

Buffett chose to partner with the Currys this time around because their foundation provides support to children in the Bay Area, per CNBC. He said he had a long phone conversation with Stephen Curry about the project. 

“Steph [Curry] is the hero of millions and millions of people,” Buffett told CNBC. 

Previous lunch winners include David Einhorn, founder of the hedge fund Greenlight Capital, who paid $250,100 for lunch with Buffett in 2003. Ted Weschler, a hedge fund manager, won the charity auction in 2010 and 2011, paying a combined total of over $5 million.