diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 83bbbb1d942977..1659ec4dbe2254 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
-VERSION_MAJOR = 3
-VERSION_MINOR = 7
-PATCHLEVEL = 99
+VERSION_MAJOR = 4
+VERSION_MINOR = 0
+PATCHLEVEL = 0
 VERSION_TWEAK = 0
-EXTRAVERSION =
+EXTRAVERSION = rc1