Warren Buffett gives away $4 billion in Berkshire Hathaway stock as bidding for his last ever luncheon hits $3 million

Buffett, who has vowed to give away 99% of his fortune, now owns 229,016 A shares and 276 B shares worth more than $95 billion. He has donated more than half of his stake in the company.

Meanwhile, the bidding was heating up for the last annual luncheon with the Berkshire chairman, and the first since a two-year hiatus from the pandemic, with all proceeds going to Glide, a San Francisco-based charity that helps the homeless.

The winning bidder and up to seven guests for the Buffett lunch, which has raised more than $34 million to support Glide, will dine at one of his favorite restaurants – Smith & Wollensky in NYC.

The Ebay EBAY, -3.23% auction that began Sunday with a starting bid of $25,000, reached $3,000,100 as of Wednesday, involving 8 bidders so far. Bidding will close Friday at 10:30 p.m. Eastern time.

While bidding tends to heat up towards the last day, the total is so far well below the record $4.57 million paid by Justin Sun, founder of cryptocurrency company TRON in the last luncheon before the pandemic. That amount surpassed a prior record paid of $3,456,789 to dine with the investing legend.

The bidding also coincides with a particularly difficult time for investors, with inflation worries driving the S&P 500 index SPX, -2.23% to a bear market and expected to push the Federal Reserve to a possible 75 basis point interest rate increase on Wednesday. Not untouched by a market rout, Berkshire shares have dropped 7% year to date.