diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index d35d34b84e9..5e5cfb80bd5 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 PHP                                                                        NEWS
 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
-?? ??? ????, PHP 8.5.0alpha2
+17 Jul 2025, PHP 8.5.0alpha2
 
 - Core:
   . Fix OSS-Fuzz #427814452 (pipe compilation fails with assert).
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 2bd6ae26ce6..d140601bf5a 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ dnl Basic autoconf initialization, generation of config.nice.
 dnl ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 AC_PREREQ([2.68])
-AC_INIT([PHP],[8.5.0-dev],[https://github.com/php/php-src/issues],[php],[https://www.php.net])
+AC_INIT([PHP],[8.5.0alpha2],[https://github.com/php/php-src/issues],[php],[https://www.php.net])
 AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([main/php_version.h])
 AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([build])
 AC_PRESERVE_HELP_ORDER
diff --git a/main/php_version.h b/main/php_version.h
index 269397ba11e..4a4864572ba 100644
--- a/main/php_version.h
+++ b/main/php_version.h
@@ -3,6 +3,6 @@
 #define PHP_MAJOR_VERSION 8
 #define PHP_MINOR_VERSION 5
 #define PHP_RELEASE_VERSION 0
-#define PHP_EXTRA_VERSION "-dev"
-#define PHP_VERSION "8.5.0-dev"
+#define PHP_EXTRA_VERSION "alpha2"
+#define PHP_VERSION "8.5.0alpha2"
 #define PHP_VERSION_ID 80500