"One Person Bets 13.5 Billion Won to Have Lunch with the Investment Guru"

Half the Price of the 2022 Record

Identity of Winning Bidder Remains Unrevealed

The charity event "Lunch with Buffett," hosted by Warren Buffett (95), Chairman of the Board of Berkshire Hathaway—known as the "guru of investing"—has been auctioned off for approximately 13.5 billion won.

Warren Buffett, Chairman of the Board of Berkshire Hathaway. Photo by AP Yonhap News

According to U.S. media outlets such as CNBC on the 15th (local time), the opportunity for lunch with Buffett was sold to a bidder for $9,000,100 (about 13.5 billion won) in a charity auction held on eBay the previous day. The identity of the bidder has not yet been disclosed. The lunch with Buffett is scheduled to take place on June 24 at Berkshire Hathaway's headquarters and Buffett's home in Omaha, Nebraska, USA.

Buffett had held this event annually since 2000, donating the winning bid to GLIDE, a San Francisco-based poverty support center, before pausing the event after 2022. The 2022 auction set a record, fetching $19 million (about 28.5 billion won). The cumulative funds raised exceed $50 million (about 75 billion won).

This year, the proceeds from the event will be delivered not only to the GLIDE Foundation but also to the "Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation," a charity established by NBA Golden State Warriors' star Stephen Curry and his wife, Ayesha Curry. Accordingly, the Curry couple is also expected to attend the lunch with Buffett.

At the end of last year, Buffett stepped down from his role as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He handed over the CEO position to Greg Abel but announced that he would continue to be directly involved in investments while maintaining his role as Chairman of the Board.

Buffett has long been known for adhering to an investment philosophy of "value investing." He has consistently employed a strategy of identifying and investing in stocks that are undervalued relative to their intrinsic value. It has been reported that his successor, CEO Abel, will also maintain Buffett's investment philosophy.

Under the new leadership of CEO Abel, Berkshire Hathaway made large-scale purchases of shares in U.S. airline Delta Air Lines during the first quarter. Previously, Berkshire Hathaway had invested in airline stocks but sold its entire holdings after the pandemic in 2020. The company also newly acquired shares of Macy's, a U.S. department store chain, worth approximately $55 million, and reported an additional purchase of about 40 million shares of Alphabet, Google's parent company. Ahead of Buffett's retirement as CEO, Berkshire Hathaway had been acquiring Alphabet stock since last year. Buffett had long maintained a cautious approach toward technology stocks, with the exception of Apple.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.