WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

consortium
    n 1: an association of companies for some definite purpose [syn:
         consortium, pool, syndicate]

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (19 January 2023):

consortium

    A group of two or more companies, educational
   institutions, governments or other bodies with some shared
   purpose.

   Examples from computing include the World Wide Web
   Consortium (W3C), Apache Software Foundation, The Open
   Group, X Consortium.

   (2009-06-05)