Buffett, one of the world's richest people, is chief executive of the conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

An anonymous bidder was willing to pay more than US$2.63 million for lunch with legendary investor Warren Buffett after the auction closed Friday to set a new record.

The winning bidder added another amount to bring the tab to US$ 2,626,411 after winning a bid of US$2,345,678 at the close of the weeklongonline auction, thus outbidding last year's previous record-breaking sum.

The proceeds from the auction will go to the Glide Foundation, a non-profit organization which provides social services to the poor and homeless in San Francisco.

Yet the winner's identity was not released.

The winner of the auction usually gets to lunch with Buffett at New York's Smith & Wollensky steakhouse and has free rein to steer the table talk.

The auction started in 2000, when the winning bid was $25,000. In 2003, the auction was first held on eBay, drawing bidders from all over the world, and the winning bid was increased to US$250,100.

The previous record amount bid till in the annual auction was set  by an anonymous American at US$2,626,311 last year. In 2009, Canadian investment firm Salida Capital paid US$1.68 million to dine with Buffett and in 2008, Zhao Danyang, a Chinese investment fund manager paid US$2.11 million.

Winning bids for Warren Buffett lunch Year Winning bid (US$) Winner 2000 25,000 Anonymous 2001 18,000 Anonymous 2002 25,000 Edward Jones Co. and 2 Anonymous 2003 250,100 David Einhorn, Greenlight Capital  2004 202,100 Jason Choo, Singapore    2005 351,100 Anonymous    2006 620,100 Yongping Duan, California   2007 650,100 Mohnish Pabrai, Guy Spier, Harina Kapoor 2008 2,110,100 Zhao Danyang, China 2009 1,680,300 Canadian investment firm Salida Capital    2010 2,626,311 Anonymous     2011 2,626,411 Anonymous