Warren Buffett brings back his famed charity lunch auction, now featuring Stephen Curry, after the last one raised $19 million

(SeaPRwire) –   After a four-year pause, Warren Buffett will once again host his annual charity lunch auction, and this time, he’s brought high-profile co-hosts to join him.

Four-time Golden State Warriors NBA champion Stephen Curry and his wife Ayesha Curry, a best-selling author and lifestyle entrepreneur, are partnering with Buffett for this year’s exclusive lunch event.

Buffett is reviving the auction, which has raised over $53 million total since it launched in 2000. The auction offers bidders the chance to win a lunch with the well-known billionaire investor, and this year’s iteration is branded “A Seat at the Table.” Buffett stepped back from the auction in 2022 after that year’s event alone raised $19 million. Proceeds will be split equally between GLIDE, Buffett’s long-time partner, a San Francisco-based social justice nonprofit that supports unhoused people, and the Currys’ Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation.

“Over the years, I’ve watched how the business community and innovative nonprofits can collaborate to create tangible change, and I’ve always believed in backing organizations that deliver meaningful impact,” Buffett shared in a statement. “This event is about coming together again, in a new way, with people I admire, to support work that truly matters. I’m very happy to partner with Stephen and Ayesha to launch something new that uplifts these communities.

Bidding opens on eBay May 7 at 7:30 p.m. PDT and will close May 14. The winning bidder and up to seven guests will join Buffett and the Currys for lunch in Omaha, Nebraska, on June 24, 2026.

Past winners include Ted Weschler, now a senior investment manager at Berkshire Hathaway, and hedge fund leader David Einhorn. Every winning bid since 2008 has topped $1 million, but in the auction’s early days, $25,000 was enough to secure a lunch with the Oracle of Omaha.

Building a partnership

Buffett reached out to the Currys over the holidays after their foundation caught his eye, Eat. Learn. Play. CEO Chris Helfrich told .

“For us, this is about using the platform we’ve been given to build something bigger than ourselves,” Stephen and Ayesha Curry said in a statement. “With this incredible auction, we’re excited to turn this moment into real impact for students and families across the Bay Area community. Eat. Learn. Play. was founded on the idea that every child deserves a chance to thrive, and by partnering with Warren and his incredible team alongside GLIDE, we can extend our work and grow our impact even further.”

In just seven years, the foundation has distributed more than 25 million meals to kids and families in Oakland, the Currys’ adopted hometown.

Only around a third of Oakland’s public school students read at grade level, which pushed Eat. Learn. Play. to invest heavily in early literacy programs. The organization offers one-on-one professional tutoring to thousands of students three to five days a week, Helfrich said. The foundation is also remodeling more than 25 public elementary schoolyards in the Oakland Unified School District and has already finished 15 new playgrounds to date.

“It’s safe to say that if this becomes an annual tradition, that would be a dream for us,” Helfrich said.

Continuing a legacy

The charity lunch has grown into one of Buffett’s signature philanthropic events, but it all traces back to his first wife, Susan Thompson Buffett.

Susan volunteered at GLIDE, which runs a wide range of social justice and community services, including daily free food support, help for people transitioning out of homelessness, and addiction recovery programs.

“None of us knew who she was. We knew her name was Susie. She would come in and serve meals in the kitchen,” GLIDE President and CEO Gina Fromer told . Her volunteering grew into a years-long partnership before Susan passed away in 2004, and Buffett continued running the auction for years after that.

After Buffett stepped away from the auction in 2022, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff took over the lunch for two years, raising $1.5 million in 2024.

“I just think he came back because he never really left,” Fromer said. “He always paid attention, watching San Francisco’s community recover and revitalize after COVID, and how important GLIDE’s work was in that process.”