Islamic investment firm Investment Dar said Tuesday that it may be interested in investing up to $800 million in a public U.S. telecom operator, and analysts are guessing the two likely candidates are Clearwire (NSDQ: CLWR) and Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel, according to Reuters.

Investment Dar is known for buying half of British luxury carmaker Aston Martin, and says it is now interested in diversifying into new sectors such as energy, pharmaceuticals and telecom while also expanding into Europe and the U.S. It said it was interested in one listed company in the U.S. and one not listed in Western Europe, and that it wants an influence in any investment it made.

Investment Dar must have gotten the memo that Clearwire and Sprint Nextel were looking for investment opportunities to build out a nationwide WiMax network. Last week, reports said that Clearwire was in talks with a handful of companies that might lead to a deeper partnership with Intel (NSDQ: INTC), revive a failed joint venture with Sprint, and possibly result in new pacts with Best Buy and Google (NSDQ: GOOG).

We reported earlier today on Clearwire’s content plans.