This article is from the archive of our partner .

Ron Paul may have an army of small donors but when it comes to billionaire sugar daddies, PayPal co-founder and early Facebook investor Peter Thiel is the financial stalwart of the campaign. According to campaign finance documents filed with the FEC on Monday, Thiel donated $1.7 million to Ron Paul-supporting super PAC Endorse Liberty in January, which amounted to over 70 percent of the $2.4 million it received for the month. Following donations of $150,000 and $750,000 donations made in December, the billionaire has given the PAC $2.6 million, accounting for 76 percent of its total fundraising.

That the Paul campaign, well-financed but not well-received by voters, would be bankrolled by Thiel makes perfect sense. Thiel, who is openly gay and Christian, has spent his considerable wealth on a number of mainstream and unorthodox causes including the Methuselah Foundation, a research organization that seeks to extend the human lifespan to 1,000 years; the Committee to Protect Journalists; gay-rights groups such as the American Foundation for Equal Rights and GOProud; the Seasteading Institute, an organization set on building small floating countries in the middle of the sea for a "vivid, wilde-eyed dream" of a Libertarian island; and the Thiel Fellowship, which give grants of $100,000 to people under the age of 20 who drop out of school to pursue entrepreneurial projects.