Just wondering, who makes the memory chips that go inside CF and SD cards? Is there just a couple massive manufacturers, or do a lot of the "brand" companies (SanDisk, Lexar, etc...) make their own?

I believe Sandisk manufactures their own, and there are a few chip suppliers of the raw memory chips - Micron and Samsung come to mind offhand...

THAT said, be careful where you source memory cards, there is a fair amount of cheap Chinese knockoff (meaning labelled with name brands, but it's counterfeit junk) memory running around (especially on a site that rhymes with FLEA-HEY). I only mention this from personal bad experience with counterfeit Memory stick Duos, and fake mini-SD cards...

Counterfeit memory comes with special features like... the cards/sticks won't mount properly, give error messages, aren't the size listed (remarked 4G sticks with "8G" labels!), or cause data loss. Gotta be careful out there when trying to save a buck or two! Know your source!