diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 5abdf82efb..8ffd5854a2 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -7,8 +7,9 @@ requires = [
     "Cython>=0.29.32,<3.0.0",
     # oldest supported Numpy for this platform is 1.17 but the oldest supported by Gensim
     # is 1.18.5, remove the line when they increase oldest supported Numpy for this platform
-    "numpy==1.18.5; python_version=='3.8' and platform_machine not in 'arm64|aarch64'",
-    "oldest-supported-numpy; python_version>'3.8' or platform_machine in 'arm64|aarch64'",
+    # 20240604 GM: testing numpy-2.0.0rc2 which requires python >= 3.9 (to 3.12)
+    "numpy==2.0.0rc2; python_version>='3.9' and platform_machine not in 'arm64|aarch64'",
+    # "oldest-supported-numpy; python_version>'3.8' or platform_machine in 'arm64|aarch64'",
     "scipy",
     "setuptools",
     "wheel",
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 350869a236..d74c6919c8 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -325,7 +325,7 @@ def run(self):
     'pandas',
 ]
 
-NUMPY_STR = 'numpy >= 1.18.5'
+NUMPY_STR = 'numpy == 2.0.0rc2'
 
 install_requires = [
     NUMPY_STR,
@@ -335,7 +335,7 @@ def run(self):
 
 setup(
     name='gensim',
-    version='4.3.2.dev0',
+    version='4.4.0a0.dev0',
     description='Python framework for fast Vector Space Modelling',
     long_description=LONG_DESCRIPTION,