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The Cheesecake Factory has a sweet new offer for diners
The Cheesecake Factory has long been a suburban mall staple. With its upscale casual atmosphere, expansive menu, and moderate price point, it provides the perfect respite after a long day of browsing department stores.That popularity is reflected in the restaurant’s strong financial position and continued expansion. In 2025, The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated, which encompasses Flower Child, North Italia, and The Cheesecake Factory, reported $3.75 billion in annual revenue and 25 new restaurant openings.“Despite a dynamic macro backdrop and a highly competitive restaurant landscape, we delivered strong results,” CEO David Overton said during the company’s Q4 FY2025 earnings call. “Sales growth across our core concepts and the most new restaurant openings in a single year supported record annual revenue.”Now, The Cheesecake Factory is celebrating that success with a sweet new offer for Cheesecake Rewards members.The Cheesecake Factory is offering diners a freebieOn April 1, The Cheesecake Factory launched a new mobile app.David Gordon, president of The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (CAKE), teased the launch back in February during the investor call.“We expect to launch a dedicated rewards app in the coming months, with the objective of creating a more seamless and connected experience for our guests,” he said. The chain was hoping to include several features in the app that would give diners an easier way to make reservations, access to their order history, and options to save favorite menu items. Initial plans put a launch in the second quarter of 2026.Related: Ulta makes big change customers will notice right awayBut diners got an April Fool’s Day surprise when the app launched slightly ahead of schedule.“The Cheesecake Factory is very pleased to introduce an app including a special offer for Cheesecake Rewards members,” Overton said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “The app will provide all our guests a more seamless online ordering experience, and our Rewards members will enjoy additional benefits like easily making online reservations and keeping track of their rewards in one convenient place.”That special offer Overton mentioned? A free slice of cheesecake or layer cake for all rewards members who download the app between April 1 and April 30, 2026.The Cheesecake Factory’s membership programThe Cheesecake Factory launched its rewards and membership program in June 2023. The program is free to join, and some of its major perks include:The ability to make online reservations at The Cheesecake FactoryA free slice of cheesecake or layer cake on your birthdayExclusive and personalized rewards throughout the calendar yearDoorDash offers and discounts
Source: The Cheesecake Factory
The Cheesecake Factory is offering rewards members a free slice of cheesecake for downloading its new mobile app.Getty Images
The Cheesecake Factory’s lighter menuThe app isn’t the only new thing on the table at The Cheesecake Factory. In March, the restaurant expanded its bites and bowls lineup with 10 fresh, craveable options.The chain first introduced bites and bowls back in 2025, with the goal of giving customers lighter options at a wallet-friendly price point. “With the addition of these menu items, The Cheesecake Factory celebrates 250+ dishes on the menu, ensuring there is something for every guest who comes to visit,” the restaurant told USA Today in March.More restaurants:Starbucks debuts a new drink to take on energy brands93-year-old sandwich chain has closed half of its restaurantsIHOP has good news for breakfast loversThe menu expansion has allowed the chain to keep bringing in diners, even as budgets tighten and factors like GLP-1s affect dining out rates. Market research company Circana says that small menu tweaks like this — highlighting lighter options, labeling healthy choices, and offering a selection of items at slightly lower price points — can go a long way in retaining GLP-1 users.“Circana has tracked foodservice data for 50 years, and consumers have been following various diet plans for the entirety of that time,” David Portalatin, senior vice president and industry advisor for Food and Foodservice at Circana, said in a statement. “Restaurants continue to adapt and grow with those trends,” he continued. “With GLP-1 usage, the biggest change to restaurants won’t be that consumers stop going out to eat, it will be how they go out to eat and what they order.”Menu additions like these, that are protein heavy and lighter in calories, provide an accommodating alternative to the dense comfort food-style The Cheesecake Factory is known for. For consumers watching their calorie intake, they can make all the difference between stopping by or choosing another restaurant. New menu items at The Cheesecake FactorySpring 2026 additions to the bowl and bites lineup include:Pickle friesAsian chicken nachosBBQ pork belly bunsSpicy jambalaya aranciniBaja bowl with choice of grilled chicken, pork carnitas, chipotle-honey shrimpAsian tenderloin bowlAha tuna poke bowl with rice or mixed greens
Source: The Cheesecake Factory
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Meta expands CoreWeave deal with another $21B commitment
Meta is not waiting for its own data centers to catch up with its AI ambitions. It is renting the capacity it needs right now.CoreWeave and Meta announced an expanded agreement on April 9 in which Meta will pay approximately $21 billion for dedicated AI cloud capacity through December 2032, CoreWeave confirmed this in a press release. The new deal layers on top of a prior $14.2 billion arrangement between the two companies, bringing Meta’s total commitment to CoreWeave to $35 billion.CoreWeave shares rose about 5% in early afternoon trading on April 9. Meta shares gained roughly 3%.What the CoreWeave deal coversThe new capacity will be deployed across multiple locations and will include some of the initial deployments of the NVIDIA Vera Rubin platform. Vera Rubin is NVIDIA’s next-generation AI chip architecture following the Blackwell series. Getting early access to this hardware matters. Companies that deploy it first gain a performance advantage before it is widely available. The agreement covers new capacity running through December 20, 2032, alongside the exercise of an existing option for additional capacity through April 10, 2032, as detailed in CoreWeave’s 8-K filing. The two companies’ Master Services Agreement dates back to December 2023. The new spending runs from 2027 to 2032, as Meta continues building its own infrastructure while leasing flexible capacity from CoreWeave, CNBC reported.Why inference is driving the dealA key focus of the agreement is inference, which is when trained AI models deliver real-time results to users rather than learning from data. This is different from training, where models are built. Inference is often where costs and delays are most visible when operating at scale.More AI Stocks:Morgan Stanley sets jaw-dropping Micron price target after eventBank of America updates Palantir stock forecast after private meetingMorgan Stanley drops eye-popping Broadcom price targetMeta runs Llama-based models across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, which together reach billions of users. Handling that workload demands fast, widely distributed infrastructure built specifically for AI. CoreWeave can deploy GPU clusters faster than Meta can construct new sites, which is a core reason for the relationship.In March, Meta announced a $10 billion data center in Texas. This year, the company plans to spend between $115 billion and $135 billion on capital expenditures, nearly double what it spent in 2024, with most of that going to data centers. The CoreWeave deal fills the gap while those owned facilities are being built.Why Meta keeps coming backCoreWeave CEO Mike Intrator framed the relationship in direct terms. “They’re going to continue to do it themselves, but they’re also going to continue to do it with us,” he said. “There’s just too much risk not to”.Intrator said Meta’s return reflects how the company evaluates its options. “They hired from across the space, people who have used infrastructure from all different folks, and they came back to us,” he added.The CoreWeave CEO also addressed the deal’s broader significance. “This is another example that leading companies are choosing CoreWeave’s AI cloud to run their most demanding workloads,” Intrator said.A Meta spokesperson described the arrangement as “part of our portfolio-based approach to infrastructure, as we invest in capacity for our AI ambitions,” according to CNBC.
CoreWeave is heavily reliant on Meta.Ratcliffe/Getty Images
What it means for CoreWeaveThe deal significantly reshapes CoreWeave’s revenue concentration. Microsoft represented 62% of CoreWeave’s 2024 revenue. After this deal, no single customer will represent more than 35% of total sales, Intrator said.CoreWeave also announced it intends to raise $3 billion through convertible senior notes due 2032, with an option for buyers to purchase an additional $450 million. A separate $1.25 billion issuance of senior unsecured notes due 2031 was also announced. Proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes and potentially to refinance existing debt.Key terms of the Meta-CoreWeave deal:New agreement value: approximately $21 billionNew capacity term: through December 20, 2032Prior arrangement: $14.2 billion, option term through April 10, 2032Total Meta commitment to CoreWeave: $35 billionInfrastructure: multiple locations featuring early NVIDIA Vera Rubin platform deploymentsMaster Services Agreement originally signed: December 2023The broader picture AIThe deal reflects an accelerating pattern across the AI industry. The largest technology companies are securing long-term computing capacity well in advance of when they need it. CoreWeave’s model, which specializes in GPU-accelerated cloud infrastructure for companies including Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI, has attracted a series of major long-term agreements in a short period.For CoreWeave, which completed its Nasdaq listing in March 2025, the $35 billion in total Meta contracts alongside its existing customer base transforms the revenue picture considerably. The company is no longer primarily dependent on any single customer, and the 2032 term gives it visibility across multiple generations of AI hardware.Related: Meta weighs drastic workforce decision after $135 billion guide
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How To Get Your Kids or Grandkids To Start Investing As Soon as They Start Earning
The best time to get the young person in your life started investing is the moment they start earning money. The goal is for investing to become something they have always done, not a decision they eventually get around to making.
However, simply telling them they should start investing probably won’t work. You are probably going to have to explain to them why it matters (which may or may not resonate), and you’ll have to help them with the actual steps of opening and funding the appropriate investment account.
1. Show Them Why Starting Early Matters
Pick an example that shows the power of compound interest.
For example, if you invest $100 a month starting at 16 and earn an average 9% annual return, by age 65, you’ll have almost $900,000. If you wait until 26 to start — just 10 years later — that same $100 a month grows to only $370,000.
Those ten years amount to more than $500,000.
That gap is why starting now, with whatever they can afford, matters more than waiting until they can afford to invest more. For more on the marvels of compound interest, see these examples from Clark.com.
2. Add an Incentive
Offer to match some or all of what they contribute, at least in the early years. It doesn’t have to be dollar-for-dollar — even matching 50 cents on the dollar gives them an immediate return on their contribution that no investment can match. It also signals that you think this is worth doing, which carries weight.
3. Help Them Do It
Opening investment accounts isn’t simple, and for most young people it won’t happen without a nudge and some hands-on help. Which account to open and fund first depends on where they are in their earning life.
If they have a part-time job, open a Roth IRA
Any child with earned income is eligible to contribute to a Roth IRA, up to the amount they earned that year (subject to the annual contribution limit). A Roth is the right account for most young earners — contributions go in after tax, and all the growth comes out tax-free in retirement.
Open the account with them, not for them. Choosing a brokerage, linking a bank account, selecting investments — each step is a reason to put it off. Sit down together and do it. It takes 30 minutes and it actually gets done. Schwab, Fidelity and Vanguard are all solid choices with no account minimums and good index fund options.
For investments, a simple index fund is the right foundation.
Tip: To keep them engaged, let them use a small portion to buy shares in companies they know and use. Fractional shares make this easy even with small amounts — they don’t need hundreds of dollars to own a piece of a company they care about. Ownership in something familiar gets them paying attention to the market in a way that carries over to everything else.
If they have a first real job, start with the 401(k)
If their employer offers a 401(k) match, that comes first. Make sure they are enrolled and contributing at least enough to get the full match. A 401(k) match is part of their compensation — if they’re not capturing it, they’re leaving money on the table.
Once they’re getting the full match, if they can afford to save more, the Roth IRA is the next step. They can contribute to both in the same year as long as they stay within the income and contribution limits.
The Account Opening Matters More Than the Amount
None of this requires much money to start. The contribution matters less than the habit. Young people who come out ahead financially aren’t usually the ones who earn the most; they’re the ones who started earliest and stuck with it.
Final Thoughts
You don’t need to turn your kids or grandkids into investing experts. What matters is helping them take that first step so investing feels normal, not intimidating. Open the account together, make that first contribution and show them why it matters. From there, time does the heavy lifting.
This is one of those rare opportunities where a small action today can turn into something life-changing down the road. Help them start early, keep it simple and stay consistent — and you’ll give them a financial habit that can pay off for the rest of their lives.
The post How To Get Your Kids or Grandkids To Start Investing As Soon as They Start Earning appeared first on Clark Howard.
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