McDonald's global headquarters is located in Chicago's West Loop neighborhood. The company moved its headquarters from suburban Oak Brook to Chicago in 2018, bringing its corporate base into the city where it operates its global restaurant business.
McDonald's was founded by Richard and Maurice McDonald, who opened their first restaurant in San Bernardino, California, in 1940. Ray Kroc joined the business as a franchise agent and helped create the system that made McDonald's a worldwide chain. The company later used Oak Brook, Illinois, as its headquarters for several decades.
The Chicago headquarters is part of a mixed-use development in the West Loop and includes a renovated historic building associated with Harpo Studios. This location is not the same as the original McDonald's restaurant in San Bernardino or the company's first franchised restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois. Those sites are important to company history but are not its corporate headquarters.