I’m a little confused here. Do I try to keep all the factions happy (seems impossible) Or do I pick one and steal from, or sabotage the others?
The idea is to choose one and stick with it. With time, it’s impossible to keep all of them happy, and warfare is inevitable.
Allied status gets you access to research, so staying as neutral as possible for as long as possible works to your advantage.
Thanks guys. I just needed clarification before I started to kiss people off. 
you can also steal the tech from the factions
But that is not easy… I would even say that those can be most difficult battles in game.
And here I wanted to make them all my dear friends, before betraying the ones I didn’t like (creepy squid cultists).