diff --git a/.azure/gpu-tests-fabric.yml b/.azure/gpu-tests-fabric.yml
index 5fc2b5a27cd92..fe7d1349a6e9b 100644
--- a/.azure/gpu-tests-fabric.yml
+++ b/.azure/gpu-tests-fabric.yml
@@ -100,6 +100,12 @@ jobs:
           pip list
         displayName: "Image info & NVIDIA"
 
+      - bash: |
+          python .actions/assistant.py replace_oldest_ver
+          pip install "cython<3.0" wheel  # for compatibility
+        condition: contains(variables['Agent.JobName'], 'oldest')
+        displayName: "setting oldest dependencies"
+
       - bash: |
           PYTORCH_VERSION=$(python -c "import torch; print(torch.__version__.split('+')[0])")
           pip install -q wget packaging
diff --git a/.azure/gpu-tests-pytorch.yml b/.azure/gpu-tests-pytorch.yml
index f899b01091668..c57e6793f099d 100644
--- a/.azure/gpu-tests-pytorch.yml
+++ b/.azure/gpu-tests-pytorch.yml
@@ -104,6 +104,12 @@ jobs:
           pip list
         displayName: "Image info & NVIDIA"
 
+      - bash: |
+          python .actions/assistant.py replace_oldest_ver
+          pip install "cython<3.0" wheel  # for compatibility
+        condition: contains(variables['Agent.JobName'], 'oldest')
+        displayName: "setting oldest dependencies"
+
       - bash: |
           PYTORCH_VERSION=$(python -c "import torch; print(torch.__version__.split('+')[0])")
           pip install -q wget packaging
diff --git a/requirements/fabric/base.txt b/requirements/fabric/base.txt
index cb70b24ae26c4..6a75c42428915 100644
--- a/requirements/fabric/base.txt
+++ b/requirements/fabric/base.txt
@@ -4,5 +4,5 @@
 torch >=2.1.0, <2.8.0
 fsspec[http] >=2022.5.0, <2025.6.0
 packaging >=20.0, <=25.0
-typing-extensions >=4.4.0, <4.15.0
+typing-extensions >=4.5.0, <4.15.0
 lightning-utilities >=0.10.0, <0.15.0
diff --git a/requirements/fabric/examples.txt b/requirements/fabric/examples.txt
index 72eabb238f3bb..7b80b2a608ab7 100644
--- a/requirements/fabric/examples.txt
+++ b/requirements/fabric/examples.txt
@@ -3,4 +3,3 @@
 
 torchvision >=0.16.0, <0.23.0
 torchmetrics >=0.10.0, <1.8.0
-lightning-utilities >=0.8.0, <0.15.0
diff --git a/requirements/fabric/strategies.txt b/requirements/fabric/strategies.txt
index 54fba9635701e..031870edb775c 100644
--- a/requirements/fabric/strategies.txt
+++ b/requirements/fabric/strategies.txt
@@ -5,6 +5,6 @@
 
 # note: is a bug around 0.10 with `MPS_Accelerator must implement all abstract methods`
 #  shall be resolved by https://github.com/microsoft/DeepSpeed/issues/4372
-deepspeed >=0.8.2, <=0.9.3; platform_system != "Windows" and platform_system != "Darwin"  # strict
+deepspeed >=0.9.3, <=0.9.3; platform_system != "Windows" and platform_system != "Darwin"  # strict
 # skip bitsandbytes==0.46, due to ValueError: too many values to unpack (expected 2)
 bitsandbytes >=0.45.2,!=0.46,<0.47.0; platform_system != "Darwin"
diff --git a/requirements/pytorch/base.txt b/requirements/pytorch/base.txt
index e77ecc8a1baeb..c649a2b39ab90 100644
--- a/requirements/pytorch/base.txt
+++ b/requirements/pytorch/base.txt
@@ -3,9 +3,9 @@
 
 torch >=2.1.0, <2.8.0
 tqdm >=4.57.0, <4.68.0
-PyYAML >=5.4, <6.1.0
+PyYAML >5.4, <6.1.0
 fsspec[http] >=2022.5.0, <2025.6.0
-torchmetrics >=0.7.0, <1.8.0
+torchmetrics >0.7.0, <1.8.0
 packaging >=20.0, <=25.0
-typing-extensions >=4.4.0, <4.15.0
+typing-extensions >=4.5.0, <4.15.0
 lightning-utilities >=0.10.0, <0.15.0
diff --git a/requirements/pytorch/examples.txt b/requirements/pytorch/examples.txt
index d9ad8150693b9..659093e368240 100644
--- a/requirements/pytorch/examples.txt
+++ b/requirements/pytorch/examples.txt
@@ -5,4 +5,3 @@ requests <2.33.0
 torchvision >=0.16.0, <0.23.0
 ipython[all] <8.19.0
 torchmetrics >=0.10.0, <1.8.0
-lightning-utilities >=0.8.0, <0.15.0
diff --git a/requirements/pytorch/strategies.txt b/requirements/pytorch/strategies.txt
index 8d3af408a98fe..1f7296798b551 100644
--- a/requirements/pytorch/strategies.txt
+++ b/requirements/pytorch/strategies.txt
@@ -3,4 +3,4 @@
 
 # note: is a bug around 0.10 with `MPS_Accelerator must implement all abstract methods`
 #  shall be resolved by https://github.com/microsoft/DeepSpeed/issues/4372
-deepspeed >=0.8.2, <=0.9.3; platform_system != "Windows" and platform_system != "Darwin"  # strict
+deepspeed >=0.9.3, <=0.9.3; platform_system != "Windows" and platform_system != "Darwin"  # strict
diff --git a/src/version.info b/src/version.info
index ee06cd3353a48..b40fa7c3f296e 100644
--- a/src/version.info
+++ b/src/version.info
@@ -1 +1 @@
-2.5.1rc2
+2.6.0dev