It's probably coincidence, but the timing of the Guanzhou ban (discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9349116) is certainly interesting, given this development.

Why would you assume it's a coincidence by default? These discussions about the China export ban have been going on for the past 6 months. Plenty of time to set-up some kind of deal.

And now right after we discover Intel can't sell to China anymore and therefore China can't have the "more powerful supercomputer in the world" anymore (at least for now), we find out that DoE, a US government agency, kicked Nvidia and brought in Intel to build the "most powerful supercomputer".

Yeah, I don't think it's a coincidence. Sounds like a way to not make Intel too pissed off about it and sue the US government over the restrictions (which it could do, but now won't.