DirectX adopting SPIR-V as the interchange format of the future

As we look to the future, maintaining a proprietary IR format (even one based on an open-source project) is counter to our commitments to open technologies, so Shader Model 7.0 will adopt SPIR-V as its interchange format. Over the next few years, we will be working to define a SPIR-V environment for Direct3D, and a set of SPIR-V extensions to support all of Direct3D's current and future shader programming features through SPIR-V. This will allow developers to take better advantage of existing tools and unify the ecosystem around investing in one IR.

Chris Bieneman and Cassie Hoef at the DirectX Developer Blog

SPIR-V is developed by the Khronos Group and is anintermediate languageforparallel computingand graphics byKhronos Group". I don't know what any of this means, but any adoption of Khronos technologies is a good thing, especially by a heavyweight like Microsoft.