International semiconductor consortium or ISMC is a new joint venture between Abu Dhabi-based Next Orbit Ventures and Israeli Tower Semiconductor that is getting ready to invest big. The consortium is said to be looking at investing no less than US$3 billion in a chip foundry based in Karnataka, India. Maybe the most interesting part here is that Tower Semiconductor is set to be acquired by Intel, assuming the deal passes all regulatory reviews. This means that Intel could be replacing Tower Semiconductor in the consortium before the new fab has been finished.

Not much information is available about ISMC, but the planned chip plant would be one of the first foundries in India, as well as the largest foundry in the nation. So far ISMC has only signed a memorandum of Understanding with the government of Karnataka, so things could still change. However, the US$10 billion incentive by the central Indian government might be part of the reason behind the decision. Tower Semiconductor specialises in various speciality process technologies, such as SiGe, BiCMOS and SOI and manufacturer mixed-signal and RFCMOS chips, as well as CMOS based image sensors, power management chips and various types of non-volatile memory and some MEMS products for its customers. The new fab is expected to bring 1,500 direct and some 10,000 indirect jobs to the region.