- Business
- McDonald's Corporation (NYSE: MCD; BCBA: MCD), founded in 1940 in San Bernardino, California, and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, operates the world's largest quick-service restaurant chain, serving approximately 68 million customers daily across more than 41,800 locations in over 100 countries; the company functions as both a fast-food operator and a real estate entity, owning about 70% of its restaurant buildings and 45% of the underlying land leased to franchisees, which generates significant rental income alongside food and beverage sales. Its core menu emphasizes hamburgers including the Big Mac and Quarter Pounder; cheeseburgers; chicken products such as Chicken McNuggets, McChicken, McCrispy sandwiches, and tenders; french fries; breakfast items like Egg McMuffin and hotcakes; soft drinks, shakes, and McCafé coffee and beverages; desserts featuring McFlurry, apple pie, and seasonal offerings like McRib and Shamrock Shake; salads, wraps, and vegetarian options; plus family-oriented Happy Meals with toys; all customized for local markets such as non-beef items in India or wine in France. McDonald's primarily franchises its outlets, adhering to standardized quality, service, and cleanliness protocols while adapting to regional tastes through a global supply chain emphasizing ethical sourcing. Recent developments include increasing its ownership stake in the China, Hong Kong, and Macau operations from 20% to 48% by acquiring Carlyle Group's minority interest in early 2024, solidifying the partnership with CITIC Consortium amid plans to expand to over 10,000 restaurants by 2028; renewing and expanding a multi-year technology consulting alliance with Cognizant in 2025 focused on cloud migration, AI, digital engineering, and quality assurance for foodservice operations; targeting 50,000 total restaurants globally by 2027 through accelerated openings at a run rate of 1,000 annually in key markets, alongside scaling chicken portfolio growth with McCrispy rollout worldwide including wraps and tenders by end-2025; launching expanded value combo meals like $5 McMuffin deals and $8 Big Mac sets in 2025 to attract price-sensitive customers; and committing to doubled AI investments by 2027 for order verification and automation, building on initiatives like Experience of the Future kiosks and mobile ordering; additionally, a planned nationwide Krispy Kreme donut partnership paused in 2025 due to demand fluctuations.