State-owned Unisplendour Corp Ltd and US storage solutions provider Western Digital Corp officially launched a joint venture called Unis-WDC Storage Co Ltd on Thursday in Nanjing, with an investment of $158 million, which is aimed at China's huge storage market.

They said the previously-announced venture will sell Western Digital's datacenter storage systems in China, and invest in the development of new products and innovative solutions that address the evolving needs of the big data market.

Unisplendour, a listed company under Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd, has 51 percent of the shares, while Western Digital holds 49 percent. The joint venture will have its headquarters and R&D operations in Nanjing and a sales and marketing office in Beijing.

"Unigroup is focused on executing its information technology development strategy, of which Unis-WDC is a critical part," said Zhao Weiguo, chairman of Tsinghua Unigroup at the launch ceremony.

"The new joint venture will drive new applications for big data storage in government and local industries," he said.

Zhao added the Unis-WDC was a critical part of Unigroup in its industry coverage from chip to cloud and to boost the developing big data storage industry in China.