It does generate native code. What else do you think is what runs at runtime? .NET never has been interpreted (apart from Micro) so you either have the JIT or n

It does generate native code. What else do you think is what runs at runtime? .NET never has been interpreted (apart from Micro) so you either have the JIT or ngen and both result in the bytecode translated to native code prior to running. That it still calls into the CLR for things like object allocation, garbage collection, etc. doesn't change anything. You can do the same from C++ if you want.