It takes millions of dollars to have lunch with legendary investor Warren Buffett and

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a bidder has snatched up the opportunity by agreeing to shell out $2.34 million in an online charity auction.

However, the highest bid this year was less than last year's record bid price of $2.62 million.

The proceeds from the auction, conducted every year on online marketplace eBay, would be used for charity purposes.

According to information available on the eBay website, the highest bidder has offered to pay $2.34 million for a lunch with Buffett following a six-day auction that ended on June 10. The opening bid was $25,000.

The winner of the auction and seven others would get to dine with Buffett at the Smith & Wollensky steakhouse in New York.

The auction proceeds will go to Glide Foundation, an institution that helps alleviate poverty in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Buffett has described Glide as "...Maybe the most effective organisation I've seen for people down on their luck. It takes people who have hit bottom and brings them back. I've seen it with my own eyes."

The record amount bid till now in the annual auction was $2.62 million by an anonymous American last year. In 2009, Canadian investment firm Salida Capital paid $1.68 million to dine with Buffett and in 2008, a Chinese investment fund manager paid $2.11 million.