(Reuters) -Someone has bid more than $12.3 million at an online auction to win a final, private lunch with billionaire businessman Warren Buffett to benefit a charity that helps the poor, homeless and people battling substance abuse.
The $12,345,678 bid from an unknown bidder in the auction, which was not yet closed, far surpasses the previous record $4.57 million that cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun paid in a similar 2019 auction.
The auction on eBay ends at 10:30 p.m. EDT Friday (0230 GMT Saturday).
Proceeds benefit Glide, a nonprofit in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district that offers meals, shelter, HIV and hepatitis C tests, job training and children’s programs.
Prior to this year, Buffett, the 91-year-old chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, had helped Glide raise more than $34.1 million in similar auctions.
The auctions began in 2000. None were held in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New YorkEditing by Frances Kerry)
