GraalVM is several things. In this context people are talking about the native-image tool which uses a small JVM written in Java (SubstrateVM) to compile to na

GraalVM is several things. In this context people are talking about the native-image tool which uses a small JVM written in Java (SubstrateVM) to compile to native code ahead of time, no HotSpot or other JVM dependencies. There's also Truffle which is a way to put other languages onto the JVM (both HotSpot and SubstrateVM).