No More Cash For Tech?

They've always been stingy with cash at Maso level, but I've still always foung it useful to have good diplomacy because it gives you better deals when buying techs, bribing them into wars, or just giving them gifts.

~SDC~

I play at the easier levels so I'm not sure how well this would work for you, but you can still get a decent amount from the majors by asking for less for a longer period of time, say 100 for 15 months or so - even though they would outright refuse to give that much in a lump sum.
But if you need a lot all at once you have to rely on the minors, assuming they haven't been wiped out by the time you really need the money...lol, in my last game I went broke because the Alexians flipped to me right in the middle of a war.

I once managed to avoid that happening only by giving the Alexians some culture bonus starbases.

~SDC~