McDonald’s to Invest $8.5B Through 2036 to Modernize Restaurants and Support Franchisees

# What McDonald's announced McDonald's unveiled a major capital and operational plan under its McDonald's Next strategy, pledging about $8.5 billion of support through 2036 to help franchisees modernize restaurants, roll out technology and improve operations. About $5 billion of that support is planned to be allocated by 2030, delivered in forms that include rent relief and direct capital assistance.

# Why the company is investing McDonald's frames the move as an effort to grow visits, expand margins and make the brand more customers' first choice. The company views the investment as a way to increase productivity, improve menu quality and personalize customer engagement while maintaining its leadership in beef and expanding share in other categories.

# The four pillars of McDonald's Next

• Menu Next: Improve taste and perceived food quality through better execution and menu innovation to increase order frequency.
• Consumer Next: Personalize customer relationships to drive more visits.
• Restaurant Next: Simplify operations, modernize restaurant design, increase productivity and deploy ArchIQ, the Google-powered system that will manage drive-thru orders and certain backend tasks.
• People Next: Equip employees to deliver improved hospitality and repeat visits.

# Concrete financial and operational targets McDonald's provided measurable targets tied to the plan. The company aims to gain 1.5 percentage points of market share in chicken and beverages by 2030 while keeping beef leadership. It expects to reach low-to-mid 50% operating margins by 2030 by cutting costs by 2.5% and adding roughly $100,000 in annual cash flow per restaurant. Systemwide sales growth targets include about 2.5% for next year, moderating to 2% by 2030.

# Scale and context McDonald's is largely franchised—about 95%—with over 13,700 U.S. restaurants and more than 31,000 internationally. Global systemwide sales exceeded $139 billion in 2025, according to Franchise Times Top 400 data.

# How the money will help franchisees The $8.5 billion pledge includes both direct capital support and rent relief, intended to accelerate modernization that franchises might otherwise delay. The company says the investments will finance technology deployments, restaurant redesigns and operational improvements that together should raise productivity and hospitality.

# Technology and human service balance A central technology piece is ArchIQ, a Google-powered operating system that will handle drive-thru orders and parts of backend management. Industry commentary included a reminder about maintaining human-to-human service: Maeve Webster, president of Menu Matters, said increasing tech and AI for efficiency makes sense but should not replace human-based hospitality, which many consumers still value.

# Leadership and execution

# Bottom line The package ties capital, tech and operational changes to explicit sales, share and margin targets. For franchisees it combines immediate financial support with a company-directed roadmap for modernization and technology adoption intended to increase visits and lower costs over time.