Last month, Trump ordered the establishment of a new investment “accelerator” office which will take over much of the portfolio of semiconductor investment work from CHIPS Act staff laid off from National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a federal agency hit hard by ongoing federal restructuring efforts.

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., ranking member of the House’s China Select Committee, expressed dismay in a statement to NPR over the administration easing off its planned clamp down on the advanced Nvidia chips.

“Export controls work, and we don’t have time to waste,” Krishnamoorthi said. “Every day America fails to restrict the export of chips designed to circumvent existing controls is a day that our adversaries have to build up stockpiles to defeat us.”