Warren Buffett revives his legendary charity lunch auction—this time with Stephen Curry. His last one raised $19 million

Warren Buffett is reviving his charity lunch auction—which has raised more than $53M since 2000—with Stephen and Ayesha Curry as co-hosts; bidding runs on eBay May 7 (7:30 p.m. PDT)–May 14 for a June 24, 2026 lunch in Omaha. Proceeds will be split equally between GLIDE and the Currys' Eat. Learn. Play Foundation; historically winning bids have exceeded $1M since 2008, Buffett raised $19M in 2022, and Marc Benioff raised $1.5M in 2024.

Analysis

This event is not just a charity auction restart — it repositions Buffett’s lunch as a deliberate talent, dealflow and brand-activation mechanism. Historically the lunch has seeded long-term relationships (e.g., hires and allocators), so reviving it with celebrity co-hosts broadens the attendee pool to wealthier, younger networks and increases the probability that future capital or talent flows toward Buffett-connected strategies over the next 12–36 months.

For eBay, the mechanics matter: using its marketplace as the auction venue reinforces eBay’s defensibility for one-off, high-AUM transactions and produces a predictable, time-bound traffic and fee uplift around May 7–14. That uplift is probably de minimis for FY revenue but is high-ROI marketing and could compress the path to marginal revenue retention if eBay converts high-value buyers/sellers into repeat marketplace participants.

On governance and ESG signaling, the comparison to prior CEO-led stewardship (Benioff) underscores a trend where tech and finance leaders use public philanthropy to shape regulatory and reputational capital. For Salesforce and peers, this increases the value of visible CSR programming as a risk-mitigator in hot-button cities (San Francisco/Oakland) — an intangible that can tilt buyer/supplier and municipal relationships over 6–24 months.

Key tail-risks: a tepid auction result or celebrity misstep would flip positive PR into negative headline risk, compressing any short-term multiple expansion. Timing is staged: immediate volatility around the May auction window, a discrete PR bump on June 24, and the bulk of potential alpha arriving over the next 6–12 months as relationships crystallize.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Buy BRK.B — 1–2% position size, 6–12 month horizon. Rationale: halo effect + potential incremental retail/talent/dealflow benefits; target +8–12% upside vs 10% downside stop. Reduce or take profit if Buffett signals reduced involvement or if shares outpace fundamentals by >15%.
• Tactical EBAY options — small, speculative trade around the auction window (May 7–14): buy a short-dated call spread (buy 2–3 week ATM call, sell 6–8% OTM call) sized <0.25% NAV. Objective: capture traffic/vol bump and skew-driven vol re-pricing; max loss = premium, target 30–100% return if stock moves +3–8% intraday during/after auction.
• Long CRM (modest overweight) — 3–9 month horizon via bought call spread to limit capital at risk. Rationale: continued premium for management who demonstrably manage stakeholder relations; Risk: macro slowdown or governance reversal. Set 20% trailing stop on premium paid.
• Contrarian hedge — if allocating to BRK.B long, offset 25% of position with short-put exposure on a consumer/retail ETF that would suffer if celebrity PR fails. This limits net downside while keeping upside optionality from Buffett’s goodwill re-rating.