Chainsmokers Net Worth: How Two DJs Built an $80 Million Empire Beyond the DJ Booth

A simple version of the Chainsmokers’ story goes like this: two New Yorkers write a song titled “…Selfie” in 2013, ride the EDM wave into stadiums, win a Grammy, and make a fortune somewhere along the way. As far as it goes, that story is accurate. The more intriguing version, however, begins in the mid-2010s, when touring revenue was coming in more quickly than either of them had fully anticipated, and they began to think like investors instead of musicians.

According to estimates, Alex Pall and Drew Taggart each have a net worth of about $80 million as of 2025 and 2026. Depending on which source you believe and how generously you value their private holdings, the two have a combined net worth of about $160 million. Taggart is now closer to $90 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. The figures differ, which is to be expected when a sizable portion of an individual’s wealth is invested in early-stage startups as opposed to publicly traded assets. It’s undeniable that this is an incredible sum of money for two individuals who were sleeping on couches and gaining popularity one SoundCloud remix at a time, not too long ago.

When put simply, the earnings from music alone are astounding. The pair reportedly earned nearly $200 million between 2017 and 2020, which is hard to believe until you consider that in 2019, they overtook Calvin Harris, who had been the highest-paid DJ on Forbes’ list for six years. That year, the Chainsmokers made $46 million. Harris’s displacement felt like a real industry moment because he had been associated with DJ wealth for so long. At the time, it was unclear exactly what had passed, but it registered as a passing of something. A sizable portion of that revenue came from a residency at Wynn Nightlife’s XS Las Vegas and Encore Beach Club, which was secured with a three-year exclusive contract in 2017. This type of Las Vegas arrangement pays in ways that most touring musicians never see.

Even so, the touring revenue might ultimately prove to be the less important aspect of the Chainsmokers’ financial narrative. Mantis, a venture capital firm that focuses on early-stage technology companies, was founded in 2019 by Pall and Taggart. Although they weren’t the first musicians to experiment with startups—Jay-Z and other hip-hop artists had been talking about tech investments for years—Mantis took a more deliberate approach than most celebrity side projects. Mantis was overseeing over 170 investments totaling about $225 million by the time they raised their third fund. Coinbase, which went public in 2021 in one of the most-watched direct listings of that year, Liquid Death, the canned water company that converted aggressive anti-marketing into sincere customer loyalty, and YellowHeart, a blockchain-based ticketing platform intended to eliminate middlemen and link artists with fans directly, are among the names in the portfolio that have endured. Given the size of the fund, Taggart’s description of the venture capital work as their “second full-time job” is probably an understatement.

It’s possible that rather than embarrassing them into retreating, the Silicon Valley criticism—and there has been actual criticism, with Pitchfork and Billboard both aiming the duo’s tech-bro affect and liberal use of words like “disrupting” and “iterating”—actually helped sharpen their investment instincts. Being made fun of for sounding like a startup founder and then going on to manage a truly successful venture capital business is somewhat ironic. The outcomes are hard to dispute, whether or not they see the irony.

Their personal investment in JaJa Tequila was evident at their pandemic-era Safe & Sound drive-in concert in Southampton in July 2020, which caused a great deal of controversy when attendees gathered close to the stage appeared to violate social distancing rules. They are listed as the brand’s largest investors. Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York expressed disapproval of the event and fined the organizers $20,000. The Chainsmokers took their fair share of criticism for the unsightly appearance. However, it reads more like a footnote than a turning point in the larger arc of their financial story.

The music keeps playing. Between 2017 and 2023, five studio albums were released; in late 2025, a new EP called Breathe was released. Taylor Swift is remixed by them. They work with artists like Daya, 5 Seconds of Summer, and Coldplay. The touring apparatus continues to operate and is still able to fill big venues and headliner spots at festivals. As this has developed over the course of more than ten years, it seems that the Chainsmokers have discovered something that most artists never fully grasp: that a music career and a business career don’t have to compete with one another, and that genuine ambition in one area can be funded by the credibility earned in the other.

It’s still unclear if the Mantis portfolio will continue to grow and whether any of their larger bets will develop into the kind of exits that drastically alter a personal balance sheet. At this point, venture capital is patient capital. However, the infrastructure they have established—consistent touring revenue, a production company, equity stakes in consumer brands, and a well-managed investment fund—indicates that the Chainsmokers’ financial story is likely not yet complete, regardless of the precise figure.