Three ways to store data: DRAM, the fast working memory that loses everything when the power goes off (Micron Technology); flash, which keeps data without power, in phones, memory cards and SSDs (Sandisk); and hard drives, the cheapest way to store large amounts of data (Western Digital).

Where software comes in. A flash chip wears out if the same cells are written too often. So every SSD has a controller chip and firmware. They spread the writing evenly across the cells, find and fix errors, and keep track of where each piece of data is. Designing those controllers and that firmware is software-heavy work.

Inside an SSD, a controller chip and its firmware spread the writing evenly across the flash chips, find and fix errors and track where each piece of data is, because a flash cell wears out if it is written too often.

How the business works. Memory chips from different makers are much alike, so buyers choose mainly on price. Prices rise and fall sharply as supply and demand change, and makers go through good and bad years in turn. The industry calls this the memory cycle. A memory factory costs tens of billions of dollars, so only a few companies make memory. Only three make DRAM.

Why AI made memory a bottleneck. An AI model is limited as much by how fast data reaches the processor as by the processor itself. High-bandwidth memory, or HBM, answers this. It stacks DRAM chips in layers right beside the processor, joined by thousands of connections.

High-bandwidth memory stacks DRAM chips in layers right beside the AI processor, joined by thousands of connections, so that data reaches the processor faster.

Where India fits. Three of the companies here design in India. One of them is building India's first large plant for chip assembly and testing. Assembly and testing turns chips made elsewhere into finished, packaged chips, and checks each one. (More on how chips are made in Market Segment 35.8, Chip manufacturing and test equipment.)

Storage systems, the equipment that holds a company's data, are covered elsewhere. (More on them in Market Segment 7.2, Enterprise storage and backup, in Industry Vertical 7, Database and storage companies.)

Every company named here has posted software engineering jobs in India. Famous companies that don't actively hire software engineers in India are left out.