There’s a simple (but radical) solution that would force GPU vendors to settle on a common, stable ISA: forbid hardware vendors to distribute software. In practice, stop at the border hardware that comes from vendors who still distribute software.

That simple. Now to sell a GPU, the only way is to make an ISA so simple even third parties can make good drivers for it. And the first successful ISA will then force everyone else to implement the same ISA, so the same drivers will work for everyone.

Oh, one other thing that has to go away: patents must no longer apply to ISAs. That way, anyone who wants to make and sell x86, ARM, or whatever GPU ISA that emerges, legally can. No more discussion about which instruction set is open or not, they all just are.

Not that the US would ever want to submit Intel to such a brutal competition.