Optional<?> kafkaMessage = Optional.ofNullable(record.value());

This line of code creates an Optional object called "kafkaMessage" that may or may not contain a non-null value. The value of this Optional object is set to the result of calling the "ofNullable" method on the "record.value()" object.

The "ofNullable" method is a static method of the Optional class that takes a nullable value as its parameter and returns an Optional object that contains the value if it is non-null, or an empty Optional if the value is null.

By using the Optional class, this code ensures that any subsequent operations on the "kafkaMessage" object will not result in a NullPointerException if the underlying value is null.