New Delhi, Sept. 23 -- 50,000 restaurants worldwide by 2028, a new building template, and a cost-reduction target the company said would largely fund itself.

The two-day Chicago presentation was the clearest articulation yet of what McDonald's calls "McDonald's > NEXT," a strategy chief executive Chris Kempczinski began outlining at a franchisee convention in June and refined over the summer as US traffic continued to fall short of internal targets.

The headline number was 50,000. The chain currently operates roughly 42,000 locations globally, which means the target implies around 8,000 net new restaurants in roughly two years. The company guided for approximately 2,100 net additions in 2026 alone, with about 2,600 gross openings and ro...