Using QEMU from tag v2.12.0-rc4 on Ubuntu Xenial ppc64el, it works.
muriloo@jaspion1:~/go-docker$ sudo docker run --rm -it qemutest
/go # /usr/bin/qemu-ppc64le-static --version
qemu-ppc64 version 2.11.94 (v2.12.0-rc4-dirty)
Copyright (c) 2003-2017 Fabrice Bellard and the QEMU Project developers
/go # go version
go version go1.10.1 linux/ppc64le
/go # go build hello.go
/go # ./hello
hello world
/go #
Using QEMU from tag v2.12.0-rc4 on Ubuntu Xenial ppc64el, it works.
muriloo@ jaspion1: ~/go-docker$ sudo docker run --rm -it qemutest qemu-ppc64le- static --version
/go # /usr/bin/
qemu-ppc64 version 2.11.94 (v2.12.0-rc4-dirty)
Copyright (c) 2003-2017 Fabrice Bellard and the QEMU Project developers
/go # go version
go version go1.10.1 linux/ppc64le
/go # go build hello.go
/go # ./hello
hello world
/go #
Here is how I configured QEMU:
muriloo@ jaspion1: ~/sources/ qemu$ ./configure --target- list=ppc64- linux-user --disable-system --disable-tools --static
muriloo@jaspion1:~$ uname -a
Linux jaspion1 4.4.0-119-generic #143-Ubuntu SMP Mon Apr 2 16:08:02 UTC 2018 ppc64le ppc64le ppc64le GNU/Linux