Which company owns the Java programming language?

Which company owns the Java programming language? Oracle. Oracle became Java’s corporate steward when it acquired Sun Microsystems, the company that created Java, in 2010.

Java began at Sun in 1991, where James Gosling, Mike Sheridan, and Patrick Naughton worked on a project originally called Oak. The language was renamed Java and publicly released in the 1990s. Its central promise was “write once, run anywhere”: programs are compiled into bytecode that runs on a Java Virtual Machine, allowing the same application to work across supported computer architectures.

Oracle owns the official Java technology and offers Oracle’s Java distributions, including the Java Development Kit. However, “owns Java” does not mean Oracle is the only organization allowed to produce Java software. OpenJDK is the open-source reference implementation, and companies such as Amazon, IBM, Azul, and others publish their own compatible builds.

Java is also frequently confused with JavaScript. Despite the similar names, JavaScript is a separate programming language with a different history and primary role. Java’s original creator, Sun Microsystems, released much of its implementation under the GPL, while Oracle continues to manage the Java platform, trademarks, specifications, and commercial distributions.