Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s top memory chip and smartphone maker, said Friday it has set up a joint venture in the United States with Japanese tech giants as they move to develop new memory technologies.

Samsung, Panasonic Corp., Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp. launched “Next Generation Secure Memory” earlier this month to collaborate on a new content protection technology for flash memory cards that are used in mobile devices.

The four participants respectively own 25-percent stakes in the joint venture.

Next Generation Secure Memory is expected to start licensing the secure memory technology developed by the four companies. (Yonhap News)