McDonald's will target a low-to-mid 50% operating margin by 2030 through its new "McDonald's > NEXT" business strategy. The company aims for roughly 250 basis points of gross restaurant-level efficiency gains, which it estimates will produce about $100,000 in annual cash flow benefits for the average U.S. restaurant. To enable these upgrades, the company is pledging $8.5B in franchisee support through 2036, with approximately $5B of that spending occurring by 2030.

The strategic rollout includes the deployment of GenAI-enabled ArchIQ and targets to increase market share in beverages and chicken by 1.5 percentage points each by 2030. Additionally, McDonald's expects a mid-to-high 80% free cash flow conversion by 2030 and forecasts that new unit expansion will contribute nearly 2.5% to systemwide sales growth in 2027.