Higher usage limits for Claude and a compute deal with SpaceX • Hacker News Board

Re: Higher usage limits for Claude and a compute deal with SpaceX

#301

Post by Sammi » Wed, May 06, 2026, 11:55 PM UTC

dgfl wrote: post #230

Sammi wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone who has googled just once to ask if datacenters in space make any sense, has found out they don't because they can't get rid of heat. That leaves only two kinds of people left who are still talking excitedly about datacenters in space: The uninformed and the grifters.

The existence of starlink proves that this is false. Look at most current pitches, they don’t talk about GW-class monsters anymore. There’s absolutely nothing stopping a 20-30kW satellite bus the size of starlink (or I guess up to 100kW? once starship is available - it’s all about payload fairing diameter) from hosting ~1 rack of compute and antennas. The economics may or may not make sense, we’ll have to see. There’…

I've heard this before. A datacenter and a starlink sattelite are not in the same ballpark of power usage and heat dissipation needs. The are orders of magnitude off from each other.

Re: Higher usage limits for Claude and a compute deal with SpaceX

#302

Post by farfatched » Wed, May 06, 2026, 11:55 PM UTC

cbg0 wrote: post #6

They're doubling the five hour limits, but no mention about the weekly limit. So overall it's the same maximum usage, right?

If this logic applied, then there would be no purpose in them having the 5 hourly limit.

Re: Higher usage limits for Claude and a compute deal with SpaceX

#303

Post by farfatched » Wed, May 06, 2026, 11:56 PM UTC

dw_arthur wrote: post #112

minimaxir wrote: post #7

> First, we’re doubling Claude Code’s five-hour rate limits for Pro, Max, Team, and seat-based Enterprise plans. The fine-print-omission appears to be that weekly limits are not doubled. The progressive 5-hour rate limit shrinking was indeed an efficiency blocker that finally convinced me to cancel, but being only able to get 4 full sessions a week as opposed to 8 doesn't compell me to resubscribe.

For my hobbyist purposes Deepseek v4 Flash has replaced Claude Code because I was also sick of hitting 5 hour limits with Claude. Right now, the only thing I miss from Claude is multi-modal image support. I can work around no image support since I can use v4 Flash all day and spend around $1. I am aware Deepseek is currently discounting their API at 75% off so I may try out another provider once the discount is gone…

Ouch, I wasn't aware they were discounting so much. There goes my subscription escape plan.

Re: Higher usage limits for Claude and a compute deal with SpaceX

#304

Post by Sammi » Wed, May 06, 2026, 11:57 PM UTC

small_model wrote: post #239

Sammi wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone who has googled just once to ask if datacenters in space make any sense, has found out they don't because they can't get rid of heat. That leaves only two kinds of people left who are still talking excitedly about datacenters in space: The uninformed and the grifters.

SpaceX have presented on this and it's fairly straightforward and they already do it with starlink satellites, just at a larger scale. Sound like you are the uniformed one (or an EDS victim)

I've heard this before and these are not comparable at all. Starlink is missing a few digits in it's power usage and heat dissipation needs compared to a datacenter.

Re: Higher usage limits for Claude and a compute deal with SpaceX

#305

Post by Rover222 » Wed, May 06, 2026, 11:57 PM UTC

hellohello2 wrote: post #153

Rover222 wrote: post #83

Reading the comments here again surprises me how in an anti-Elon bubble most folks are. They are renting out spare Colossus 1 capacity. Colossus 2 is still coming online. Orbital data centers are really the plan in the next few years. XAi is still behind, but not a disaster considering how late they entered (and Elon’s unfortunate fixation on anime characters). SpaceX is extremely uniquely positioned to crush the res…

I struggle to understand how orbital data centers can make sense. Is it mainly for continuous solar energy? Surely this can't be enough to offset the costs of launching?

Continuous 5x solar power (relative to on earth), no earthbound construction red tape or protestors, and yeah it can only possibly pencil out with Starship launching routinely. No other rocket system could even come close to making it work.

Re: Higher usage limits for Claude and a compute deal with SpaceX

#306

Post by dlev_pika » Wed, May 06, 2026, 11:59 PM UTC

floatrock wrote: post #168

brokencode wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty smart for SpaceX though. They’re turning an asset they made for a money-pit (Grok) into probably a major source of revenue ahead of their IPO.

We all remember 2 weeks ago when SpaceX bought $10B of Cursor services. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47855293 Since Cursor often relies on Claude models, some of those services will flow back to their own datacenter compute. Especially if there's, lets call it, "customer demand loadbalancing optimization agreements" that makes those Cursor services prioritize Claude models using the app keys that get load-bal…

When you put it like that sounds like another subprime crash in the making lol

Re: Higher usage limits for Claude and a compute deal with SpaceX

#307

Post by dagi3d » Thu, May 07, 2026, 12:00 AM UTC

does that mean this data center was way overprovisionedo or that grok is barely used and they could potentially kill it and just use claude?

Re: Higher usage limits for Claude and a compute deal with SpaceX

#308

Post by ilia-a » Thu, May 07, 2026, 12:00 AM UTC

Interesting that the 5h limits are raised, but if I understand announcement correctly, the weekly limit is not. So all this means is that you can burn through your weekly limit faster and be locked out entirely, or having to buy tokens

Re: Higher usage limits for Claude and a compute deal with SpaceX

#309

Post by scottyah » Thu, May 07, 2026, 12:03 AM UTC

airspresso wrote: post #234

gpugreg wrote: post #25

> As part of this agreement, we have also expressed interest in partnering with SpaceX to develop multiple gigawatts of orbital AI compute capacity. Anthropic is either taking this space business more serious than the general public, or posting this sentence was part of the deal to get the compute.

> posting this sentence was part of the deal to get the compute This 100%

Source? I'd like to read more on Anthropic's views of space compute

Re: Higher usage limits for Claude and a compute deal with SpaceX

#310

Post by scottyah » Thu, May 07, 2026, 12:07 AM UTC

redox99 wrote: post #200

Sammi wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone who has googled just once to ask if datacenters in space make any sense, has found out they don't because they can't get rid of heat. That leaves only two kinds of people left who are still talking excitedly about datacenters in space: The uninformed and the grifters.

The area you need in radiators is only half the area you need in solar panels. So it's definitely not a deal breaker. Its still very dumb because of economics, logistics, serviceability and more.

Pretty much everything has been "very dumb because of economics, logistics, serviceability and more". What kind of hacker are you to be on this site lol