Oracle has released Java 25 (Oracle JDK 25), the newest version of the language and platform that has been around for over three decades. The update brings thousands of improvements, many aimed at boosting developer productivity and strengthening performance, stability, and security. Oracle will provide long-term support for at least eight years, with quarterly updates until 2028 and extended licensing through 2033.
“As Java embarks on its fourth decade, it continues to deliver features to help ensure that applications, including those powered by and integrated with AI capabilities, will be highly efficient and scalable in hardware platforms,” said Arnal Dayaratna, research vice president, software development, IDC.
Developer Tech News spoke with Chad Arimura, VP of developer relations at Oracle, who explained how accessibility fits into this release. “I think that’s one of the main reasons we have the ‘paving the on-ramp’ efforts. Paving the on-ramp is all about creating a smooth entry point, because we know Java has a highway of information and ways of doing things […] We could create a ‘Java Lite’ that’s easy to learn and use, but then developers would have to unlearn those concepts when moving into full Java, which would set them back. That’s the big idea behind paving the on-ramp and the features tied to it.”
He said Learn.java was designed to give beginners a tailored path, while dev.java serves professionals looking to deepen their skills.
Language and library updates
Java 25 introduces several changes to make coding more efficient. Pattern matching now works with primitive types in instanceof and switch statements, which helps in areas like AI inferencing. Module import declarations make it simpler to pull in entire libraries, cutting down on repetitive code and lowering the barrier for beginners. Compact source files and instance main methods give students and administrators an easier way to write small programmes, while flexible constructor bodies improve safety by allowing validation before a constructor runs.
The standard libraries also gain features aimed at performance and reliability. Structured concurrency treats groups of tasks as a single unit, making multithreaded programming less error-prone. Scoped values make it easier to share immutable data in threads, a benefit for AI and microservices applications. Stable values introduce a more flexible way to handle constants, and the vector API continues to improve runtime performance for computation-heavy tasks.
Developer Tech News also spoke with Bernard Traversat, VP of software development at Oracle, who pointed to compact data as especially impactful. “What we’re doing is significantly reducing the object header used to represent a Java object in memory. In some enterprise benchmarks, we’ve seen up to 22% memory reductions. With AI, people work with very large amounts of data, so this allows them to handle more AI workloads at lower cost thanks to improved density.”
Java 25 improves security and performance
Security gets an update with new APIs for handling cryptographic keys and certificates, as well as a key derivation function that prepares Java for quantum-safe encryption. The changes are designed to make it easier to integrate Java applications with modern authentication systems while also looking ahead to the future of secure computing.
Performance improvements focus on speed and efficiency. Compact object headers reduce memory use on 64-bit systems, while ahead-of-time features speed up startup times by simplifying cache creation and shifting profiling work to training runs. The allows the compiler to generate optimised code as soon as an application launches, without requiring changes to existing programmes.
Donald Smith, VP of product management for the Java Platform, told Developer Tech News that the support cycle tied to these improvements is just as critical. “We always start with eight years, but we fully expect it will be extended […] Java 8 has already been extended to 2030 – that will be 16 years of commercial support. Java 11 was recently extended to 2032, largely because customers were locking into ten-year projects and asked us to commit to that horizon. So really, it comes down to which Java versions have strong market adoption and are tied to long-term customer implementations.”
Monitoring tools upgraded in Java 25
Monitoring and profiling tools in Java 25 also see upgrades. JFR CPU-time profiling provides more accurate data on Linux systems, cooperative sampling improves the stability of stack sampling, and new method timing and tracing tools make it easier to track down performance bottlenecks and bugs.
Smith also spoke about Java’s role in AI and cryptography. “Here’s the thing to keep in mind – we’ve been through a major cryptography shift before […] That experience is exactly what we’re applying to post-quantum cryptography. We’ve been following standards carefully, working with library maintainers and vendors, moving at a steady pace, and making sure performance teams validate everything. We’re focused on making implementations fast and stable enough to handle backporting.”
Traversat added that projects like Valhalla, Loom, and Leyden are also preparing Java for the demands of dense AI workloads, high-performance cryptography, and faster startup times.
Community and the cloud
The release is the result of collaboration between Oracle, OpenJDK, and the wider developer community. More updates are expected to be showcased at the next JavaOne event in March 2026.
“Since its inception 30 years ago, Java has remained a trusted and secure language for building large-scale enterprise applications,” said Adam Resnick, research manager at IDC. “New features that simplify complexity and offer immediate feedback are making it easier to build beginner-level programmes. Java’s continued evolution reflects a thoughtful balance, broadening its accessibility to less experienced developers while preserving the robustness required for enterprise-grade solutions.”
Java 25 also benefits from Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), which offers support for Oracle JDK 25 and includes management tools and performance packs at no extra cost. The Oracle Java SE Universal Subscription extends this with triage services, management tools, and enterprise-level support, helping IT teams reduce risks and control costs while keeping applications secure.
Looking ahead, Traversat said that Oracle is continuing to invest in efficiency and cloud-native performance. He pointed to projects like Valhalla, Babylon, and optimisations at the JVM level as part of a roadmap that aims to reduce resource use, cut power consumption, and help Java run effectively in CPUs, GPUs, and NPUs.
With its focus on AI, security, and performance, Java 25 continues the platform’s steady progress while keeping the language approachable for both new and experienced developers.
(Photo by orbtal media)
See also: AI coding assistants speed delivery but multiply security risk
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