Java News Roundup: OpenJDK JEPs, Jakarta EE, GraalVM, TornadoVM, Micronaut, Quarkus, JobRunr, Maven

OpenJDK elevated JEP 539 (Strict Field Initialization in the JVM, Preview) and JEP 401 (Value Objects, Preview) to Targeted for JDK 28, while JEP 535 (Shenandoah GC: Generational Mode by Default) moved to Proposed to Target and JEP 542 (PEM Encodings of Cryptographic Objects) reached Candidate status. JDK 27 early-access build 33 and JDK 28 early-access build 9 were released, and the Java roundup also covered GA of GPULlama3.java 1.0, point releases of Micronaut, Quarkus, JobRunr, a maintenance release of JDKUpdater, Maven 4.0 release candidate 6, and the first milestone of Jakarta Agentic AI 1.0.

This week's Java roundup for July 27th, 2026, features news highlighting: OpenJDK JEPs targeted and proposed to target for JDK 28; the GA release of GPULlama3.java 1.0; point releases of Micronaut, Quarkus and JobRunr; a maintenance release of JDKUpdater; the sixth release candidate of Maven 4.0; and the first milestone release of Jakarta Agentic AI 1.0. OpenJDK After its review had concluded, JEP 539, Strict Field Initialization in the JVM Preview https://openjdk.org/jeps/539 , has been elevated https://mail.openjdk.org/archives/list/jdk-dev@openjdk.org/thread/NJ2UURKJJJHCZH4ADZ26FDCHNMWR3QX4/ from Proposed to Target to Targeted for JDK 28. This JEP introduces strictly-initialized fields in the Java Virtual Machine that are required to be initialized before they are read. Therefore, default values such as 0 or null are never observed. This feature is available for use by compilers that emit class files. Similarly, JEP 401, Value Objects Preview https://openjdk.org/jeps/401 , has been elevated https://mail.openjdk.org/archives/list/jdk-dev@openjdk.org/thread/KYFVJ6HM4CI4APOM5OTJYAQOZBF4N76D/ from Proposed to Target to Targeted for JDK 28. Formerly known as Object Classes and Values Preview , this JEP proposes to enhance the language with value objects , defined as objects that: only contain final fields; do not have identity; and are solely distinguished by the values of their respective fields. JEP 535, Shenandoah GC: Generational Mode by Default https://openjdk.org/jeps/535 , has been elevated https://mail.openjdk.org/archives/list/jdk-dev@openjdk.org/thread/WCXBMQ2AIKRK5R4DV6LFML5L4KHMXZSM/ from Candidate to Proposed to Target for JDK 28. This JEP proposes to designate the Shenandoah Garbage Collector to generational mode by default. The non-generational mode will be deprecated with the intent to remove it in a future release. The review is expected to conclude on August 3, 2026. JEP 542, PEM Encodings of Cryptographic Objects https://openjdk.org/jeps/542 , has been elevated https://mail.openjdk.org/archives/list/jdk-dev@openjdk.org/thread/GR3THDRU4JECTN7COO5RSFRQSOAFJE5U/ from its JEP Draft 8386511 to Candidate status. This JEP proposes to finalize this feature after three rounds of preview delivered in JDK 25 through JDK 27. This feature offers " an API for encoding objects that represent cryptographic keys, certificates, and certificate revocation lists into the widely-used Privacy-Enhanced Mail PEM transport format, and for decoding from that format back into objects. " This JEP will support conversions between PEM text and cryptographic objects in PKCS 8 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc5208 and X.509 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc5280 binary formats. Changes include: a reclassification of the PEM record class to a regular class as a convenience for providing constructors that accept Base64-encoded content in byte arrays; and a rename of the interface to DEREncodable https://cr.openjdk.org/~ascarpino/pem/api/java.base/java/security/DEREncodable.html to more accurately describe the binary data stored in PEM text. BinaryEncodable JDK 27 Build 33 https://github.com/openjdk/jdk/releases/tag/jdk-27%2B33 of the JDK 27 early-access builds https://jdk.java.net/27/ was made available this past week featuring updates https://github.com/openjdk/jdk/compare/jdk-27%2B32...jdk-27%2B33 from Build 32 that include fixes for various issues https://bugs.openjdk.org/issues/?jql=project%20%3D%20JDK%20AND%20fixversion%20%3D%2027%20and%20%22resolved%20in%20build%22%20%3D%20b33%20order%20by%20component%2C%20subcomponent . Further details on this release may be found in the release notes https://jdk.java.net/27/release-notes . JDK 28 Build 9 https://github.com/openjdk/jdk/releases/tag/jdk-28%2B9 of the JDK 28 early-access builds https://jdk.java.net/28/ was also made available this past week featuring updates https://github.com/openjdk/jdk/compare/jdk-28%2B8...jdk-28%2B9 from Build 8 that include fixes for various issues https://bugs.openjdk.org/issues/?jql=project%20%3D%20JDK%20AND%20fixversion%20%3D%2028%20and%20%22resolved%20in%20build%22%20%3D%20b09%20order%20by%20component%2C%20subcomponent . More details on this release may be found in the release notes https://jdk.java.net/28/release-notes . Jakarta EE The first milestone release of Jakarta Agentic AI https://jakarta.ee/specifications/agentic-ai/1.0/ 1.0.0 delivers notable changes such as: a new internal TCK infrastructure that moves beyond signaturea and reflection checks for covering real behavioral semantics; and new @RequiresEngine and annotations that replace use of the JUnit @RequiresNoEngine annotation for tests when a reference implementation is being deployed. Further details on this release may be found in the @Disabled https://github.com/junit-team/junit-framework/blob/main/junit-jupiter-api/src/main/java/org/junit/jupiter/api/Disabled.java release notes https://github.com/jakartaee/agentic-ai/releases/tag/1.0.0-M1 . The Eclipse Starter for Jakarta EE https://start.jakarta.ee/ has been formally updated to support Jakarta EE 11. Supporting runtimes are Azul Payara, GlassFish and Open Liberty. Developers are encouraged to generate applications and report any feedback on the GitHub list of issues https://github.com/eclipse-ee4j/starter/issues . GraalVM The release https://medium.com/graalvm/graalvm-25-2-is-here-600a9ae53f83 of GraalvM https://www.graalvm.org/ 25.2 ships with notable changes such as: a new Graal Script Agent https://github.com/graalvm/graal-script-agent/blob/main/README.md , an early-preview Java library, that turn natural-language requests into sandboxed application plugins that run locally; support for G1 GC on Native Image for all platforms, including WindowsOS; and Java Vector API enabled by default. More details on this release may be found in the release notes https://www.graalvm.org/release-notes/25.2/ . TornadoVM The release https://x.com/tornadovm/status/2082056257070895598 of GPULlama3.java https://github.com/beehive-lab/GPULlama3.java/blob/main/README.md 1.0.0, an open-source GPU-accelerated Llama 3 inference project powered by TornadoVM https://www.tornadovm.org/ , provides bug fixes and new features such as: support for TornadoVM CUDA backend with the accelerated batch prefill from the Tensor Core MMA https://www.tornadovm.org/cuda-for-java tensor-core-mma ; a new OpenAI-compatible server that can serve any GPULlama3 model behind HTTP API OpenAI clients; and a new class for improved collection of performance metrics. Further details on this release may be found in the RunMetrics https://github.com/beehive-lab/GPULlama3.java/blob/main/src/main/java/org/beehive/gpullama3/auxiliary/RunMetrics.java release notes https://github.com/beehive-lab/GPULlama3.java/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md . Micronaut The Micronaut Foundation has released https://micronaut.io/2026/07/27/micronaut-framework-5-1-0-release/ version 5.1.0 of the Micronaut Framework https://micronaut.io/ based on Micronaut Core 5.1.10 https://github.com/micronaut-projects/micronaut-core/releases/v5.1.10 . This release updates many of the Micronaut modules that include new features such as: a new @Property annotation, nested within the annotation, for providing sequenced-collection injection, CDI integration hooks and traversal of Kotlin inner class via the @Introspected https://github.com/micronaut-projects/micronaut-core/blob/5.2.x/core/src/main/java/io/micronaut/core/annotation/Introspected.java Kotlin Symbolic Processing API https://kotlinlang.org/docs/ksp-overview.html ; and support for OpenDI https://github.com/eclipse-ee4j/odi/blob/main/README.md , an Eclipse compatible implementation of CDI Lite, a subset of the full Contexts and Dependency Injection https://jakarta.ee/specifications/cdi/4.0/ specification delivered in version 4.0. More details on this release may be found in the release notes https://github.com/micronaut-projects/micronaut-platform/releases/tag/v5.1.0 . Quarkus The release https://quarkus.io/blog/quarkus-3-38-released/ of Quarkus https://quarkus.io/ 3.38.0 delivers bug fixes, dependency upgrades and two new features: support for weight-based memory eviction for the Hibernate Second Level Cache https://docs.hibernate.org/stable/core.old/reference/en/html/performance-cache.html 2LC cache regions implemented via Caffeine https://github.com/ben-manes/caffeine/blob/master/README.md and JCache https://www.jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=107 ; and a new HTTP Problem https://quarkus.io/extensions/io.quarkiverse.httpproblem/quarkus-http-problem/ extension that implements RFC-7807, Problem Details for HTTP APIs https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7807 , to automatically map exceptions to standardize the HTTP responses from the application/problem+json endpoint. Further details on this release may be found in the release notes https://github.com/quarkusio/quarkus/releases release-3.38.0 . JobRunr The release https://www.jobrunr.io/en/blog/jobrunr-v8.8.0/ of JobRunr https://www.jobrunr.io/ 8.8.0 ships with bug fixes and enhancements such as: improved logging when an instance of the class encounters a BackgroundJobServer https://github.com/jobrunr/jobrunr/blob/master/core/src/main/java/org/jobrunr/server/BackgroundJobServer.java ; support for Kotlin 2.4; and the ability for Quarkus users to remove the StorageException https://github.com/jobrunr/jobrunr/blob/master/core/src/main/java/org/jobrunr/storage/StorageException.java dependency as it is no longer required to run JobRunr with the Quarkus quarkus-smallrye-health https://central.sonatype.com/artifact/io.quarkus/quarkus-smallrye-health SmallRye Health https://quarkus.io/extensions/io.quarkus/quarkus-smallrye-health/ extension. More details on this release may be found in the release notes https://github.com/jobrunr/jobrunr/releases/tag/v8.8.0 . JDKUpdater Version 26.0.33+211 of JDKUpdater https://github.com/HanSolo/JDK-Updater/blob/main/README.md , a utility that provides developers the ability to keep track of updates related to builds of OpenJDK and GraalVM has been made available this past week. Introduced in mid-March 2024 by Gerrit Grunwald https://de.linkedin.com/in/gerritgrunwald , Principal Engineer at Azul, this release delivers an update on the release feature to accommodate the recent changes in release cadence https://blogs.oracle.com/java/transitioning-java-to-more-frequent-security-updates for OpenJDK Critical Patch Updates. Further details on this release may be found in the release notes https://github.com/HanSolo/JDK-Updater/releases/tag/26.0.33%2B211 . Maven The sixth release candidate of Maven 4.0.0 ships with bug fixes including resolved issues from RC5 , documentation improvements, dependency upgrades, and new features such as: the ability to accept Java module names as an attached artifactId , even if they differ from a project's , to support multi-module projects where more than one artifact may be produced; and an extraction of the artifactId dependency into its own project for improved execution of Maven 3 and Maven 4 projects in maven-executor https://central.sonatype.com/artifact/org.apache.maven/maven-executor and embedded modes. forked Developers should be advised of known compatibility issues and stricter POM validation as detailed in the release notes https://github.com/apache/maven/releases/tag/maven-4.0.0-rc-6 .