Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) reportedly had meetings with two top Silicon Valley billionaires at Allen & Company's Sun Valley conference in Idaho.

In his Playbook newsletter Sunday, Politico's Mike Allen reported Paul, who is considering a presidential bid in 2016, "had private sit-downs with the investor Peter Thiel and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg" while at the conference. Allen described Paul's presence at the confab as "another sign of how far he has come since his insurgent victory as a Tea Party torch-bearer."

A spokesperson for Paul has not responded to a request from Business Insider about what he discussed with Thiel and Zuckerberg. However, it is natural that Paul, who has emerged as a leader of the libertarian wing of the Republican Party, might seek to curry favor and position himself for potential donations from Silicon Valley.

Paul has been attempting to court support among the tech set by focusing on his opposition to the National Security Agency's surveillance program. Last year, he traveled to California to give a lecture at the Google campus in Mountain View.

Thiel is perhaps the best known avatar of Silicon Valley libertarianism. He gave $2.6 million to a PAC that supported the presidential campaign of Paul's father, former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) in 2012.