This new KHR_parallel_shader_compile extension will bring shader compilation off to the main thread and even if the total compiling time could remain the same it won't be blocking the main thread which is a huge benefit.

It will require some modifications on the way three.js is handling the compilation and linking of shaders and move it from sync to async. Some ideas have been proposed on the Khronos mailing list and the Khronos repo PR

Just opening the issue so we could discuss ideas on how to address this change.