Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Google were the four leading global brands at the end of 2023, according to consulting firm Interbrand. They’re are also four of the world’s five most valuable companies.

The other is Nvidia, which for a time this week, surpassed Microsoft to become the largest company in the world by market cap.

But despite its $3.1 trillion valuation (it reached $3.3 trillion before a two-day slide), Nvidia doesn’t even crack the top 100 most iconic names on Interbrand’s most recent list, which is populated by such companies as McDonald’s, Starbucks, Disney and Netflix.

Nvidia’s historic rise in valuation — the stock has climbed almost ninefold since the end of 2022 — has been driven almost entirely by demand for its graphics processing units (GPUs) that are at the heart of the boom in generative artificial intelligence and, more broadly, by the hype over AI. Nvidia has over 80% of the market for chips used to train and deploy AI software like ChatGPT. A handful of huge tech companies are the primary buyers of its chips.

The speed of Nvidia’s ascent and its relative lack of contact with consumers along the way combines to put the 31-year-old company’s brand recognition on Main Street far behind its allure on Wall Street. No. 100 on Interbrand’s list for 2023 is Japanese camera maker Canon, with Dutch brewer Heineken at No. 99.

“As a product company recently moving onto a global stage, Nvidia has not had time, nor has it dedicated resources, to change its role of brand and strengthen its brand to protect future revenue,” Greg Silverman, Interbrand’s global director of brand economics, said in an email. The risk for Nvidia, Silverman added, is that its “weak brand strength will limit how valuable it will be, despite its market cap heights.”

A spokesperson for Nvidia declined to comment.

Nvidia’s annual revenue growth has exceeded 200% in each of the past three quarters. For fiscal 2025, revenue is expected to almost double from a year earlier to over $120 billion, according to LSEG.

The company’s data center GPUs, which made up 85% of sales in the most recent quarter, are installed in massive facilities, and typically require a team of expensive data science and supercomputing experts to configure them to efficiently create AI software.

By contrast, Apple, ranked No. 1 by Interbrand, makes the vast majority of its money by selling iPhones and other devices to consumers across the globe. Microsoft, ranked second, is an enterprise sales giant, but is ubiquitously known for its Windows and Office software. Third-ranked Amazon strives to be consumers’ everything store, and No. 4 Google is, for many people, the front door to the internet.

Rounding out Interbrand’s top 10 are South Korean electronics giant Samsung, along with three car companies (Toyota, Mercedes-Benz and BMW), Coca-Cola and Nike.

Further down the list, at No. 24, is Nvidia rival Intel, which is best known for making the processor at the heart of laptops and PCs and for its long-running “Intel Inside” advertising campaign. Even Hewlett Packard Enterprise, a company that builds servers, made the list at No. 91.

However, a competing survey shows that Nvidia’s brand value is catching up to that of its peers.

In a ranking of the 100 most valuable global brands published this month by Kantar BrandZ, Nvidia landed at No. 6, leaping 18 places from its prior survey. The brand’s overall valued jumped 178% in a year to an estimate of about $202 billion. Kantar surveys enterprise buyers to evaluate brands that primarily sell to other businesses to come up with a total estimate of brand value.

“Nvidia is pound for pound as relevant and meaningful to that B2B buyer that’s looking to make big, large purchases in-house for their company as Apple is to the consumer who’s buying an iPad or a Mac,” Marc Glovsky, senior brand strategist at Kantar, told CNBC.

And while Nvidia may not be a name known to your parents — or your kids — it does have resonance in a particular corner of the consumer world. Just ask your hard-core gaming buddy.

When Nvidia was founded in 1991, AI was a nascent field. The company’s primary focus was on designing chips that could draw digital triangles quickly, a basic capability that led to a huge expansion in 3D games.

For years, Nvidia, and its GeForce brand and green logo were well known to the type of people who tweaked their computers to run the most advanced games. Nvidia provides the chips for the Nintendo Switch console, which has shipped over 140 million units around the world.

Unlike Intel, Nvidia never put its name in front of consumers with flashy ad campaigns. And gaming is now just a nice side business for chipmaker. In the latest quarter, it accounted for $2.6 billion of revenue, or 10% of total sales, rising 18% year over year.

When it comes to Nvidia’s most important products, companies and institutions vying for its AI chips have to go through an extensive quoting and sales process, often through a computer-equipment company, like Dell or HPE. Those vendors sell complete systems, including memory, a central processor and other parts. Even experts who want to train AI models are more likely to rent Nvidia access through a cloud provider than build their own server clusters.

Still, Nvidia’s name recognition is rapidly increasing. Among retail investors, Nvidia has emerged as the most widely held stock, according to data collected and published last month by Vanda Research.

And while the name didn’t make Interbrand’s top 100 list for 2023, the firm’s data shows its brand awareness quadrupled in the past 12 months, which will help when it’s time for the next ranking, Silverman said.

Maybe by then people will know how to say its name, a topic that’d been the source of debate on obscure gaming forums. The company pronounces it en-VID-ia.

WATCH: The ‘Magnificent Seven’ should have another good earnings season

in early May, sweet green It opened its first automated location, in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, Illinois. After only a few weeks of operation of the restaurant, the salad chain is preparing to delve into the technology to lower labor costs and improve customer experience.

But in the early days of experimenting with automation, only time will tell if customers, employees, and investors prefer the new way of preparing salads and warm dishes.

Historically, the restaurant industry has been slow to adapt to new technology. The thin profit margins of food restaurants mean that most of them are unwilling to invest in expensive technology that may not work in their kitchens or dining rooms.

But with the so-called Infinite Kitchen, Sweetgreen joins a legion of restaurant companies integrating automation into their business. Starbucks And Chipotle Mexican Grill Among the big names that are exploring artificial intelligence or robotics. Some experiments, such as McDonald’s Testing AI voice dialing for driving lanes, it did not result in nationwide launches.

But Sweetgreen seems to have more faith.

“Within five years, we expect all Sweetgreen stores will eventually be automated,” CEO Jonathan Neiman told investors at the William Blair Growth Conference this month.

Sweetgreen plans to open a second Infinite Kitchen location later this year. The company did not disclose the site, but said it would work to modify an existing site with the technology.

Sweetgreen jumped into automation in August 2021. A few months before it went public, it bought the salad chain Spyce for nearly $50 million, though the final valuation depends on the startup’s technology performance, according to regulatory filings.

Spyce was the brainchild of four MIT alumni, who founded the company in 2015. They created robotic technology to prepare and serve affordable, healthy meals. The startup opened two restaurants in the Boston area before Sweetgreen bought it.

A month after Sweetgreen’s acquisition of Spyce, and before Spyce’s restaurants closed, the salad chain brought out some menu items to try at a Spyce location.

Then Sweetgreen worked out how to make the automated kitchen work for its restaurants.

“The fundamentals of IK were the same. What we focused on was making it operationally easy to interact with – to store, to clean and to maintain. There were also some tweaks to protect the quality of the food,” Timothy Noonan, Sweetgreen’s Vice President of Operations Strategy and Concept Design, speaking to CNBC.

The chain had to figure out how to hand out goat cheese that clumps easily and cherry tomatoes that crunch easily. It also tweaked the technology to ensure consistent portions, whether it’s for airy arugula or heavy toppings like sunflower seeds. Sweetgreen has also added the ability to rotate the bowls as they move along the conveyor belt that fills the bowls, ensuring even distribution of ingredients and the ability to finally mix the ingredients together.

“We have a great team, but it’s really hard to make it completely accurate and consistent,” Neiman told CNBC. “And the other amazing thing is that the tops don’t feel crazy. They’re not like some of our stores in New York. That allows us to be there, to serve more people, and that makes it smoother.”

After months of testing the technology in the lab, Sweetgreen decided to try it out in Naperville, adding it to a new restaurant that was originally slated to be a traditional location.

“We want to understand how suburban customers react to this,” Noonan said.

While Sweetgreen may tout labor savings to investors, Naperville is designed to put a face on outgoing orders.

The external features of the restaurant A large window shows Sweetgreen workers preparing ingredients that will make their way to Infinite Kitchen dispensers and eventually to final orders.

“It starts with human hands,” Noonan said, “and we have people who finish the dishes after the machine produces them, so it ends up with human hands.”

Upon entering the restaurant, customers pass by a display fridge for drinks and a rack of Sweetgreen-branded T-shirts and sweatshirts to order their food. A large digital menu board hangs above the screen, flashing recommendations for new customers.

“We know our list of some clients can be a little overwhelming,” Noonan said.

Customers can order from one of five tablets set up in the middle of the store. If none are available, patrons can order from the app instead of waiting in line. Unlike a traditional Sweetgreen, customers will not have to wait 10-15 minutes for mobile orders.

For now, the employee is hanging around tablets helping customers place their orders. Noonan said Sweetgreen still decides how much human presence she needs during that move.

Behind the counter is the “Infinite Kitchen,” which looks like the bulk food dispensers found in some grocery stores. The dispensers contain almost all the ingredients for assembling warm dishes and salads for customers.

After placing the order, the Infinite Kitchen begins assembling the bowl, starting with the dressing on the bottom. Then come the greens and grains, followed by the rest of your chosen toppings. At each station, the bowls rotate slightly, allowing fresh ingredients to go into empty space. Bowls slide through dispensers for ingredients you don’t need, unless there’s a dish in front blocking their path.

The final automated step is mixing salads or dishes. A worker waits at the end of the assembly line to add herbs, avocados, and fish—all of which the Infinite Kitchen can’t add yet.

“There are still a couple of things we have to do manually, but we think focusing will allow us to have better accuracy,” Noonan said. “We still need someone to check the orders.”

The conveyor belt can hold up to 20 bowls, with room to add more if needed, and can make up to 600 bowls per hour if no mixing is required, according to Noonan.

Even behind the scenes, the setup is deceptively simple. Stairs behind the end of the assembly line lead to a mezzanine where dispensers can be reloaded. The monitors show if any components are operating at a low level or indicate any possible malfunctions, such as an overfilled distributor.

If any dispensers stop working, ingredients can be moved to a different location or added manually at the end of the process. But overall, the workers are relatively unoccupied at Infinite Kitchen.

Wall Street is primarily interested in the ability of automation to lower labor costs, though Sweetgreen and other restaurant chains deny that this is the only motivation to explore the technology.

TD Cowen estimated last year that about 30% of Sweetgreen’s costs are labor, with half of its employees preparing food and the other half packing orders. Reducing labor means increasing profit margins. Sweetgreen is already profitable on the restaurant level, though the company overall is not yet profitable.

It’s already clear that Infinite Kitchen means fewer Sweetgreen workers in restaurants. Noonan said sites with an infinite kitchen can count on about half the workers at a traditional site. They don’t need to boost the number of workers who are scheduled to work five-hour shifts to handle massive peak periods – which only last about 90 minutes.

“Part of the beauty of this is being able to keep the same team size and let the machine absorb the peak,” said Noonan.

The staff has to prep the endless kitchen in the morning, making sure it’s well stocked and calibrated to get accurate, consistent portions. Throughout the day, workers will watch digital screens telling them if any dispensers are running low on ingredients or encountering any problems. At the end of the day, the staff will have to clean up the system.

Sweetgreen expects some secondary business benefits, too. Workers at the Naperville site did not need additional training, and training at the Infinite Kitchen sites should be faster.

“A big part of training in a typical restaurant is not only rehearsing the preparation processes, but also knowing how to memorize our basic menu items,” Noonan said.

Neiman also said that a quieter restaurant environment could mean employees stay longer, which reduces turnover, which is a common problem in the restaurant industry.

Until now, customers had barely noticed the automation, according to Noonan. He said they often think of ordering tablets as the automated gadgets and mistake the infinite kitchen for a fridge displaying the ingredients.

But the site’s use of automation doesn’t seem to alienate many customers. Broadly speaking, consumers are becoming more comfortable with technology in restaurants. A Deloitte survey conducted in March found that 60% of respondents reported being somewhat likely to order from a kitchen that prepares food at least in part using robotic technologies. This is up from the 54% in a survey the consulting firm conducted two years ago.

The buzz around the use of automation at the Naperville restaurant seems to be intriguing, though it’s too early to tell if the crowds will still be there in a few months’ time. Rich Shank, vice president of research and insights for Chicago-based Technomic, told CNBC that co-workers have reported long lines during busy lunch and dinner hours. Shank waits for consumers’ curiosity to subside before visiting.

Changes to the in-person order may contribute to long waiting lines. Sweetgreen’s traditional location lets customers decide on their customized meals as they move along the assembly line, telling employees what ingredients they want. This approach usually results in streaks at peak times — but they tend to move relatively quickly.

But at Naperville, customers don’t have the same opportunity to look at the ingredient offering. The tablet format will be familiar to anyone who’s used Sweetgreen’s website and mobile app, but it can create a bottleneck for customers who aren’t sure about their orders.

One Yelp reviewer said the order line went out the door, simply because customers took several minutes to order.

“This may be the downfall of this establishment because if we walked in 5 minutes later and saw that line we would have nailed and eaten elsewhere,” the customer wrote in the review.

It’s a common problem for fast-food restaurants that have designed their menus around personalization, according to Shank.

“It was judged whether the user interface of any kind of kiosk could solve this problem,” Shank said.

On a more basic level, customers can also be aware that they want a human to compile their orders.

“It is faster for a human being to hear the assignment requested by the customer and quickly make adjustments. The machine, in its current form at least, does not appear to be able to handle the improvisation that often occurs on the line, such as “I don’t want too much sauce” or “Can you Made it too light for the marinade?” Shank said.

Of course, there’s always the possibility that Infinite Kitchen technology can fail, despite Sweetgreen’s best efforts to eliminate bugs that could cause the system to crash. The Naperville site layout is not built with backup lines of work that allow employees to quickly manually collect orders.

From drive-by transfers to in-home operations to predictive consumer orders, restaurant brands are experimenting with AI to simplify food service.

The technology has not yet reached critical mass in major chains, but it has the potential to automate more tasks and give restaurant workers the opportunity to have a more rewarding experience with guests.

The main advantage, analysts say, is the potential to mitigate workforce challenges in an ever-tighter recruitment market. The National Restaurant Association expects the industry to add 500,000 jobs by the end of 2023, but notes that there is only one job seeker for every two open positions.

Furthermore, TD Cowen estimates that voice-enabled AI can increase sales by up to 15% through suggestive selling as well as speed up service times by 10 seconds.

The shift in the industry is reminiscent of the advent of third-party delivery services five years ago, before they were ubiquitous in nearly every major restaurant operator, according to Andrew Charles, managing director of consumer and restaurant service at TD Cowen.

“Some were trying it, some we were thinking about it, and most were trying it,” he said of third-party apps for delivery services. “I think there’s a clear counterpart today where it’s very similar and as we continue to see more adoption of this, you’ll see a domino effect here.”

But hurdles to widespread adoption remain, according to Charles. Many of these large restaurant chains need to get their franchisees on board. Language barriers and menu nuances can add complexity to the ordering process that AI may not be able to navigate.

Meanwhile, the shareware wave has already begun.

Last month, Carl’s Jr. And parent company CKE and Hardee’s announced that it aims to launch AI integration nationwide through partnerships with Presto and OpenCity AI.

Yum! Trademarks In recent years, it has pioneered leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance operations, including its 2021 acquisition of Dragontail with the goal of streamlining food preparation and delivery. The technology, which automates the kitchen flow, dispatches drivers and tracks customer orders, is used at 1,000 Pizza Hut locations in the US, and nearly 3,000 others globally. The company also relies on artificial intelligence in the recommended ordering module which informs managers of the amount of products to order per week.

McDonald’sFor its part, McD sold Tech Labs to IBM in 2021, and entered into a strategic partnership to help bring AI technology to driveways. McD Tech Labs, formerly Apprente before it was acquired by McDonald’s, has used artificial intelligence to understand drive-thru commands. So far, McDonald’s has tested the technology in certain locations.

Del Taco also uses voice-activated AI for drive-thru orders, as is wing stop For orders placed over the phone.

Panera Bread has similarly invested in technology in both its internal and external operations. It works with OpenCity AI in vehicle voice ordering and with Miso Robotics to ensure coffee quality and temperature control to enhance product consistency.

For Panera, it’s about the question of “how do we redeploy our people for higher-quality, higher-value guest experiences,” said George Hanson, chief digital officer. “Whether they’re spending more time preparing food and quality control, or personal interaction,” Hanson told CNBC in an interview.

“It might be just swinging around in the dining room and asking them how their meal is or if they can move their table — just having those warm interactions. We see that as a higher value.”

Chipotlethe leading technology company in the restaurant business, has also partnered with Miso Robotics to deliver it Chippy, the automated chip maker, is currently installed and cooking chips at a restaurant location in Fountain Valley, California. Using artificial intelligence, Chippy was trained to recreate the exact trademark chip recipe with salt and fresh lemon juice. The next iteration of Chippy will determine how many chips to make as well.

The company has also applied artificial intelligence to its app for posting suggestive orders and uses the camera systems in its Cultivate Center test kitchen to provide real-time data on the amount of product ordered based on customer volume to be more predictive and less reactive.

The hope is that AI and bots will amplify and improve the human experiences at the company’s restaurants, chief customer and technology Kurt Garner told CNBC.

“[It’s] We help crew members, managers, and the team adjust to their current environment as a tool, but not take them out of the equation of serving our guests and managing the ship.”

Owner of an olive garden Darden Restaurants bet on fine dining with the $715 million acquisition Ruth’s Chris Steak House.

The company’s announcement Wednesday that it was adding another fine-dining restaurant to its portfolio surprised some. TD Cowen analyst Andrew Charles wrote in a note to clients that he expects the company to target another casual dining chain, such as First Watch Restaurant Group.

But Darden executives made it clear that the deal was because of their belief in the high-end segment.

Fine-dining sales growth is expected to outpace casual dining by 2026, Darden Chief Executive Officer Rick Cardenas told investors Thursday on a conference call to discuss the deal. Upscale restaurants also have “significantly higher” margins, he added.

Although Wall Street and economists worry about a potential recession this year, Darden said high-income diners are not giving up spending at The Capital Grille and Eddie V’s, the company’s existing fine-dining chains.

“As we’ve seen across our fine dining brands, consumers with incomes above $150,000 continue to dine out and maintain or increase their spending at casual or fine dining restaurants,” Cardenas said.

The average check at Ruth’s Chris is $97, according to Darden’s investor presentation. By comparison, the average check at Olive Garden, which accounts for roughly half of Darden’s revenue, was $21 in fiscal 2022.

The casual dining segment has struggled in recent months as inflation-weary consumers shift to fast-casual options such as Chipotle Mexican Grill or fast food chains like McDonald’s. Both owner of Outback Steakhouse Bloomin’ Brands and Chili’s reported declines in traffic in their most recent quarters. Darden’s LongHorn Steakhouse and Olive Garden restaurants bucked the trend and outperformed their competitors, thanks in part to the company’s below-inflation pricing strategy.

Still, Darden executives emphasized that Ruth’s acquisition of Chris is a long-term bet and the decision was not made based on the current economic cycle. Cardenas also said third-party data shows there is little overlap between Ruth’s Chris customers and those who visit The Capital Grill and Eddie V’s.

Domino’s pizza And Papa John’s Both fell in pre-market trading after posting mixed earnings Thursday morning.

It missed Domino’s analyst estimates for US same-store sales and total revenue for the quarter. Domino’s also lowered its outlook. Papa John’s announced lighter-than-expected sales in North America.

Domino’s stock closed down more than 11%, while Papa John’s stock was down 6%.

Both pizza companies recently raised prices to offset higher food, transportation and labor costs. Domino’s wavering demand wavered amid a lack of national drivers. Last October, Domino’s executives announced plans to raise prices by about 7% in the fourth quarter, including increasing the Mix & Match deal from $5.99 to $6.99.

Here’s how Domino’s did, compared to analyst estimates, according to Refinitiv:

• Revenue: $1.39 billion vs. $1.44 billion expected
• Adjusted earnings per share: $3.97 vs. $3.94 expected

The Michigan-based company said same-store sales in the United States increased 0.9%, well below analyst estimates of 3.4%, according to estimates compiled by StreetAccount. This was a decrease of 0.8% for the 2022 fiscal year.

The US-owned stores reported revenue of $117 million, which was lower than StreetAcount’s estimate of $129.3 million.

The company cut its two- to three-year sales forecast to a range of 4% to 8% growth from 6% to 10%, citing macroeconomic headwinds weighing on its domestic delivery business.

Revenue grew 3.6% in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to the same period a year earlier, citing higher supply chain revenue as a result of increases in market basket prices for stores.

This month, Domino’s launched a loaded fries in three flavors, which some analysts think could boost sales.

“We had significant pressure on the US delivery business in 2022 and focused our efforts on finding solutions,” said CEO Russell Weiner. “We also generated continued momentum in our US business and delivered strong international store growth.”

Papa John’s fourth quarter results beat Wall Street expectations. Total revenue fell less than 1% compared to the company’s record fourth quarter last year. Revenue would have risen by 3% had it not been for the strategic re-franchising of dozens of restaurants.

Here’s how Papa John’s did, compared to analyst estimates, according to Refinitiv:

• Revenue: $526.2 million vs. $523.8 million projected
• Adjusted earnings per share: $0.71 vs. Expected $0.66

The Louisville-based company didn’t miscalculate with company-owned restaurant sales in North America, reporting revenue of $172.2 million versus an expected $172.7 million, according to estimates compiled by StreetAccount. Comparable sales in North America were up 1% from a year ago.

The company said it expects comparable sales in North America to grow annually between 2% and 4%, according to executives. For 2023, they added, you would expect growth to come in at the lower end of that range.

Earnings for both Domino’s and Papa John’s came after stronger-than-expected earnings McDonald’s And Yum! Trademarksboth of which exceeded earnings and quarterly revenue estimates this quarter.

McDonald’s It plans to cut jobs and reorganize as the company refocuses its priorities to accelerate restaurant expansion, CEO Chris Kempzynski told employees Friday.

The fast food giant said the job cuts are not a cost-cutting measure but instead aim to help the company innovate faster and operate more efficiently. As part of the reorganization, the company will deprioritize and discontinue certain initiatives, according to a company-wide memo from Kempzinski. It is not clear what those projects are.

“Today,” Kempinski wrote, “we are divided into centric silos, sectors, and markets.” “This approach is outdated and self-limiting — we try to solve the same problems multiple times, we don’t always share ideas and we can be slow to innovate.”

Currently, the McDonald’s Corporation is divided into three divisions: United States, International Markets Operated and International Development Licensed Markets. The company operates in 119 markets around the world.

In addition, McDonald’s said on Friday that it will accelerate its plans to develop new restaurants.

“We must accelerate the pace of opening our restaurants to meet the increased demand that we have driven over the past few years,” Kempzynski said in the memo.

McDonald’s has not previously released a forecast of how many new restaurants it plans to build in 2023, but the company said in November that the new units would contribute about 1.5% to systemwide sales growth in 2022.

The company has not yet decided how many new restaurants it will build nor how many jobs it will cut as part of the reorganization. Kempzinski said the company will wind up and begin notifying layoffs by April 3.

Kempzinski also announced a handful of internal promotions, effective February 3. 1, to assist the company in implementing its new strategy. Global Chief Marketing Officer Morgan Flatley will also oversee the new business ventures. Sky Anderson will move from McDonald’s West USA to Global Business Services. Andrew Gregory’s role as Global Franchise Officer will also include lead global development, and Spiro Drulias will transition from Senior Vice President of Finance to the company’s Chief Transformation Officer.

McDonald’s shares closed up more than 2% on Friday. The company is expected to report its fourth-quarter earnings on January 3rd. 31.

McDonald’s It is due to report third-quarter earnings before the bell on Thursday.

Here’s what Wall Street analysts expect in a Refinitiv poll:

• Earnings per share: $2.58
• he won: 5.69 billion dollars

In the first half of 2022, the fast food giant saw a slowdown in spending from lower-income consumers, and that trend is likely to continue this quarter. Analysts polled by StreetAccount expect same-store sales to grow 5.8%, buoyed largely by higher list prices.

Same-store sales in the US are expected to rise 4%, according to StreetAccount estimates. McDonald’s tends to value offerings to attract customers whose budgets are under inflationary pressures. A burger chain may also attract sales from diners who trade from fast or full-service restaurants.

Investors will also turn their eyes to the international market segment operated by McDonald’s. The IOM division includes European markets such as France, Germany and the United Kingdom, all of which have been hit hard by rising energy costs. In addition, a strong US dollar means painful conversation rates for McDonald’s sales, hitting markets with company-owned restaurants.

McDonald’s shares are down 4% this year, bringing the company’s market capitalization down to nearly $200 billion. But it has outperformed the broader market. The Standard & Poor’s 500 It has fallen by 19% in the same period.

This story is developing. . Please check back for updates

Starbucks Inc on Tuesday reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings and revenue, fueled by demand in the United States for cold brew coffee.

With inflation rising, interim CEO Howard Schultz said the chain isn’t seeing customers pull back or reduce their spending. Other restaurant companies, including McDonald’s and Chipotle Mexican Grill, have seen lower-income consumers visit less frequently or spend less as higher gas and grocery bills squeeze their budgets. Schultz credited Starbucks’ pricing strength and customer loyalty for its ability to resist the trend.

The company’s shares are up more than 1% in extended trading.

Here’s what the company reported for the quarter ending July 3 compared to what Wall Street had been expecting, based on a survey of analysts by Refinitiv:

• Earnings per share: 84 cents adjusted vs. 75 cents expected
• Revenue: $8.15 billion vs. $8.11 billion expected

The coffee giant reported third-quarter net financial income attributable to Starbucks of $912.9 million, or 79 cents a share, down from $1.15 billion, or 97 cents a share, a year ago. The company said inflation and higher wages for coffee industry workers affected its margins in the quarter.

Net sales It rose 9% to $8.15 billion. The company reported global same-store sales growth of 3%, buoyed by a stronger performance in the United States.

In the domestic Starbucks market, same-store sales increased 9%, driven largely by average total orders, as well as a 1% increase in traffic. The company said morning sales are returning, making up nearly half of revenue as consumers resume pre-pandemic measures.

The company also noted the popularity of its iced shaken espresso and said cold drinks accounted for three-quarters of US sales this quarter. Schultz said customers are more likely to add modifiers like juice and milk to cold drinks than to hot drinks, raising the price of overall drinks. Cold brews are also popular with Gen Z customers, a major demographic for the coffee chain, according to Schultz.

Outside the US, same-store sales fell 18%, weighed down by lower demand in China. Starbucks said Covid restrictions affected sales in its second-largest market for two-thirds of the quarter. As a result, same-store sales in China fell by 44%. The company is still experiencing periodic short-term shutdowns in China.

Last quarter, Starbucks withdrew its forecast for fiscal year 2022, citing the uncertainty caused by the Covid outbreak in China. The company did not release new forecasts this quarter.

Starbucks opened 318 new locations worldwide during the quarter, bringing its global restaurant count to 34,948.

The company plans to hold an investor day on the 3rd of September. 13 in Seattle to share more about its strategy for the future.

Read the full earnings report here.

Correction: An earlier version of this story is wrong Refinitiv estimates Starbucks’ quarterly revenue.

McDonald’s said Tuesday that both price increases and value items boosted same-store sales growth in the United States, which was higher than expected during the second quarter.

However, CEO Chris Kempczynski said the environment remains “challenging” as inflation and the war in Ukraine affected its quarterly results and consumer confidence.

“We are now at war in Europe, inflation is at its highest level in 40 years, interest rates are rising to levels not seen in years. All of this is contributing to weak consumer sentiment around the world and the possibility of a global recession,” Kempczynski told analysts on a conference call Tuesday morning. “.

The company’s shares rose by about 2% in morning trading..

Here’s what the company reported compared to what Wall Street was expecting, based on an analyst survey by Refinitiv:

• Earnings per share: $2.55, adjusted vs. $2.47 expected
• Revenue: $5.72 billion vs. $5.81 billion expected

McDonald’s reported second-quarter net income of $1.19 billion, or $1.60 per share, down from $2.22 billion, or $2.95 per share, a year earlier. The company reported $1.2 billion in fees related to the sale of its Russian business due to the war in Ukraine.

Excluding these fees, a French tax settlement and other items, the fast food giant earned $2.55 per share.

Inflation lowered the company’s profits, despite higher prices. For the full year, McDonald’s expects inflation of 12% to 14% for food and packaging in the United States and higher levels in Europe. Executives said U.S. inflation topped that level in the second quarter and is likely to surpass it in the third before calming down in the fourth.

Net sales fell 3% to $5.72 billion, affected in part by the closures of Russian and Ukrainian McDonald’s restaurants.

Global store sales rose 9.7% in the first quarter, driven by strong international growth. Russian sites were excluded from the company’s same-store sales calculations, but Ukrainian restaurants were included.

Same-store sales in the US rose 3.7% in the first quarter, topping StreetAccount’s estimate of 2.8%. The company attributed its strategic price hikes and value propositions to its strong performance. Last quarter, McDonald’s executives said some lower-income consumers were trading on cheaper options in response to inflation, and the trend has continued this quarter.

The company’s international authorized development markets division saw same-store sales increase 16% in the quarter. Same-store sales contracted in China as the government reimposed Covid restrictions, but growth in Brazil and Japan made up for the market’s weak performance.

McDonald’s International Operated Markets segment recorded a 13% growth in same-store sales, supported by strong demand in France and Germany. Executives said the department’s restaurants stole traffic share from other fast food chains. However, Germany, Spain and France are seeing a decline in consumer confidence, even to record low levels in some cases, according to executives.

Read the full earnings report here.

Yum Brands is close to selling its Russian KFC business as part of its plan to exit the country’s market, the company announced Tuesday.

The company said it plans to fully exit Russia once the KFC deal is complete. Since March, Yum has said it is redirecting any profits from its Russian operations to humanitarian efforts as it works to get out of the country. The restaurant company added that it had halted all investments and development of restaurants and its operations in the country.

The Russian Pizza Hut franchises, which are currently being rebranded, sold out in May.

Yum Brands, which also owns Taco Bell, first announced in March that it would suspend operations of KFC and Pizza Hut in Russia, when it activated the Disaster Relief Fund and made donations to the Red Cross, UNICEF, the World Food Program and the International Rescue Committee.

Yum is the latest Western restaurant operator to end operations in Russia after the Kremlin forces invaded Ukraine. McDonald’s sold its Russia locations to the current licensee in May.

Of the more than 54,000 locations owned by Yum Brands worldwide, there are about 1,000 KFC locations and 50 Pizza Hut locations in Russia, most of which operate under franchise agreements.