From the article: "The ban... comes after Chinese regulators concluded that domestic chips had attained performance comparable to those of Nvidia’s models used in China."

So those businesses do not need crippled Nvidia chips, they merely want them because of familiarity, wider ecosystem, maybe lower cost of ownership.

> so what are they trying to signal here?

Obviously : if a rug was pulled from under your feet once - don't use the same rug again and don't fund that rug manufacturer with additional purchases! Fund your own makers instead.