This news comes hot on the heels of Oracle's far-reaching lawsuit against Google for Android- and Java-related copyright and trademark infringement.
The announcement also comes just a couple of weeks after Apple called the Java runtime "deprecated," saying, "Developers should not rely on the Apple-supplied Java runtime being present in future versions of Mac OS X."
In an announcement this morning, Apple and Oracle jointly stated that the former company will give the project "most of the key components, tools and technology required for a Java SE 7 implementation on Mac OS X, including a 32-bit and 64-bit HotSpot-based Java virtual machine, class libraries, a networking stack and the foundation for a new graphical client."
Apple also said that Java SE 6 will remain available for Snow Leopard and the upcoming, multitouch-enabled Lion.
Java SE 7 and future versions of Java for Mac OS X will be available from Oracle.
"The availability of Java on Mac OS X plays a key role in the cross-platform promise of the Java platform," said Hasan Rizvi, Oracle's senior vice president of development. "The Java developer community can rest assured that the leading edge Java environment will continue to be available on Mac OS X in the future."
OpenJDK began in 2006 at Sun Microsystems. Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems last year; the Java programming language was a big part of that deal. Oracle called the Java platform "one of the most important technologies Oracle acquired with Sun."