With only a few hours left to bid, the price for a lunch with Warren Buffett has reached $2.8 million, its highest value in years.
For the 17th year in a row, the famed investor nicknamed the “Oracle of Omaha,” is auctioning off a lunch date on eBay (EBAY) to benefit Glide, a charitable organization that assists the homeless and poor in San Francisco.
The six-day auction ends tonight at 10:30 E.T., and the bidding war heated up on Friday afternoon, with offers of nearly triple the previous day’s bids. Two unknown bidders appeared to be vying for the “power lunch” prize, according to the eBay auction page. Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A), will break bread with the winner (and up to seven guests) at the New York City steakhouse Smith & Wollensky.
If $2.8 million turns out to be the winning bid, the auction will fetch 19% more than it did in 2015, when the lunch sold for about $2.3 million to the executive of a Chinese gaming company. The cost to dine with Buffett hit a record in 2012, with an anonymous bidder paying nearly $3.5 million.
The annual Buffett lunch auctions have raised more than $20 million for Glide so far.