For those interested in this sort of thing, this video showcases Graal's ability to compile JVM bytecode to native binaries in a really impressive way: https://youtu.be/topKYJgv6qA
TLDR for others: GraalVM lets you compile your code to native, which makes startup times 1000x faster and memory footprint 10x lower. This is great for things like "java/clojure based command line tools", and maybe even micro services. Long running processes on the JVM are about 2x faster than a GraalVM compiled program, so it won't make your normal backend any faster. This is because JIT is better since it can understand how your program is used when selecting which types of optimisations to apply. Also GraalVM doesn't support everything in the dynamic class loading and reflection space.
I started using zprint code formatter for clojure. The binary is running GraalVM. I invoke it form editor and the result is instantaneous! No startup, no warmup, just nicely formatted code where the jungle used to be. I'm really excited about this technology.
NOTE: You are describing the native-image feature of GraalVM. GraalVM is primarily a full featured JVM so you can run your normal backend and it will probably be a bit faster, and it does support everything in the dynamic class loading and reflection space.
